POPULARITY
RHLSTP #625 - Beating Leonardo at Poker - Rich is back at the Podcast Room, talking to the wonderful Lucy Porter. They discuss selling out to the man, writing links for Anthea Turner's Homemaking show from a leaking shack, working with Mrs Merton and whether Caroline Aherne gets the credit she deserves, appearing on Celebrity Poker in the early noughties and what career opportunities that led to and have Rich and Lucy let themselves go? Plus appearing on Eastenders and why Lucy will keep on touring forever. Hooray!See Lucy on tour https://www.lucyporter.co.uk/gigs/See RHLSTP live (whilst you still can) http://richardherring.com/rhlstpSUPPORT THE SHOW!See details of the RHLSTP LIVE DATES Watch our TWITCH CHANNELBecome a badger and see extra content at our WEBSITE Buy DVDs and books from GO FASTER STRIPEAudio mix by Ben Evans (NTO)Recorded at the Podcast RoomThanks to Chris Evans (NTO) and Ben Walker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episode Notes Harlan and Anna Hubbard were truly an artistic couple who spent their final three-plus decades in a hand-built cabin on the Ohio River, where they lived off the land with no electricity or indoor plumbing . . .and this week, the spotlight belongs to a nonprofit committed to preserving their Trimble County property!! Come along as we meet two board members from Payne Hollow on the Ohio: Dr. David Wicks, and Susan Griffin Ward. Each of them describe their deep attachment to the great outdoors, and give us some insight into the unique talents/lifestyle of Harlan and Anna Hubbard. They also discuss steps that have already been taken to preserve the Hubbards' former dwelling, their vision for Payne Hollow's future, and the various means by which we can support their very worthy cause. Finally, they bring details of an exciting Payne Hollow symposium to be held in October at nearby Hanover College. So don't miss out on our insightful conversation and a captivating history lesson! To learn even more about Payne Hollow on the Ohio, simply email info@paynehollowontheohio.org, or click here to visit the web page: https://www.paynehollowontheohio.org/. Be sure to click the following link to register for the upcoming Payne Hollow Symposium at Hanover College: https://www.paynehollowontheohio.org/payne-hollow-symposium. Additional info about Kentucky Waterways Alliance can be accessed via the following link: https://www.kwalliance.org/. And lastly, Susan's book of portraits entitled "Looking for the Sun at Merton's Corner" can be purchased at this link: https://www.blurb.com/b/8606765-looking-for-the-sun-at-merton-s-corner. Find out more at https://blabbin-in-the-bluegrassblabbi.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/blabbin-in-the-bluegrassblabbi/ac100d41-2233-4965-b545-ff83cf44dba3
RACHEL MERTON MLC INTERVIEWLIBERAL VALUES, WOMEN IN SPORT & DEFENDING OUR FLAG COMMANDING THE NARRATIVE - Episode 151Steven Tripp is joined by Liberal Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, the Hon. Rachel Merton MLC. Rachel was first elected to the NSW Parliament in 2023 and has been one of the hardest working members for both her party and the community. Rachel discusses her political upbringing, which saw her father serve as the Member for Carlingford and later Baulkham Hills, why she joined the Liberals in 1991, and what she feels are the core values of the party. Rachel then discusses current politics and gives her strong conservative views on immigration, protecting women's sport, the importance of the Australian flag and the performance of the Minns Labor Government. To follow or contact Rachel Merton MLC, visit: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Hon-Rachel-Merton-MLC-61551820684326https://www.instagram.com/rachel_merton_mlc SHOW YOUR SUPPORT for Commanding the Narrative by donating – your support is much appreciated! https://www.commandingthenarrative.com/donate KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL OUR PODCASTS AND ARTICLES, visit:https://www.commandingthenarrative.com To become a Member of Australians for Better Government, visit: https://www.australiansforbetter.com/joinCONTACT US BY EMAIL:admin@commandingthenarrative.com Hosted by:Steven Tripp is one of Australia's most prominent politicians and political commentators, known for his incisive analysis and fearless approach to addressing the Nation's challenges. With a deep understanding of policy and a reputation for sparking meaningful debate, Steven guides conversations with his signature clarity and passion for Australia's future.Steven is the President of Australians for Better Government, Vice-President of Let's Rethink Renewables and a National Committee Member of the Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIBUK). https://x.com/RealStevenTripp https://spectator.com.au/author/steven-tripp Follow Commanding the Narrative on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CommandingTheNarrative Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandingthenarrative X: https://x.com/commandthenarra Share this conversation and spread the word about Commanding the Narrative!
Adam and guest Zach Johnston discuss the highly suspicious 1968 death of Trappist Monk Thomas Merton at a conference in Bangkok, Thailand and the theory that he was killed by the CIA over his high-profile opposition to the Vietnam War.The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation - https://www.amazon.com/Martyrdom-Thomas-Merton-Investigation/dp/1548077380Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/conspiracy-the-show--7047649/support.Follow the You Don't Even Like Podcasts Network on social media!Instagram: http://instagram.com/youdontpodBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/youdontpod.bsky.socialThreads: https://www.threads.com/@youdontpodFacebook: http://facebook.com/youdontpodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@youdontpods
Jamie Smith is a Reformed philosopher — one of the first to put a Catholic mystic in the title of a book and then proceed to argue that it was the contemplative tradition that brought him back to a flourishing form of faith on the far side of a series of nerdy dead ends. Make Your Home in the Luminous Dark is his most personal and, I would argue, most beautiful book. It began the day, more than a decade ago, when Jamie was in the depths of a severe depression his analytical philosophical training could not think its way out of, and his wife came home from a garage sale with a battered used copy of The Dark Night of the Soul and told him he should read it. What that began — St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Merton — is what this book bears witness to. It is a book about the mystics saving Jamie's faith. It is also a Reformed philosopher's argument that the cultural liturgies project he is best known for needs a prior undoing before its formative work can do anything at all. As I told Jamie in the hour, this is a book that made me feel uncomfortable about how much I enjoyed it. We covered the apophatic/cataphatic distinction with the twist Jamie puts on it, the way certainty is still Cartesian even when it calls itself pious, the trad-wife/manosphere as snorting modernity while claiming to have escaped it, Charles Taylor's Cosmic Connections as the real sequel to A Secular Age, and what to do when Distraction Inc. has fully occupied the inner room. The platform is the plantation. Come sit with this one and check out the book. You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube About our guest Dr. James K.A. Smith is Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he holds the Gary and Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology and Worldview. He earned his PhD at Villanova University under John D. Caputo. He served as editor of Comment magazine (2013–2018) and as editor-in-chief of Imagejournal (2019–2024). His new book is Make Your Home in the Luminous Dark. His previous books include the Cultural Liturgies trilogy — Desiring the Kingdom, Imagining the Kingdom, and Awaiting the King — as well as You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor, On the Road with Saint Augustine, How to Inhabit Time, and his early philosophical work Speech and Theology. He writes at Quid Amo on Substack. JOIN OUR OPEN ONLINE CLASS: The Empire Christ Couldn't Keep Ever notice how Christian nationalism gets talked about like it's some bizarre new glitch in the faith? It isn't — it's a 2,000-year-old arrangement wearing new clothes, and once you see how the pattern works, you can also spot the Christ who keeps slipping free of it. Join theologian Joerg Rieger and Tripp Fuller for The Christ Empire Couldn't Keep, a free six-week online class tracing the holy alliances, imperial creeds, and stubborn resistance that have shaped Christianity from Paul to the present. You'll get six lectures from Joerg, six live Q&As, weekly readings from his book Christ and Empire, and a community of fellow troublemakers thinking it through together. It's free to join, every session is recorded, and it kicks off Thursday, August 27. Grab your spot at HomebrewedClasses.com. This podcast is a Homebrewed Christianity production. Follow the Homebrewed Christianity, Theology Nerd Throwdown, & The Rise of Bonhoeffer podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 75,000 other people by joining our Substack - Process This! Get instant access to over 50 classes at www.TheologyClass.com Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Outline00:00 - Intro02:25 - Bachelier and the Théorie de la Spéculation03:05 - Stochastic processes, Brownian motion, and the heat equation09:45 - Poincaré's verdict, obscurity, and rediscovery13:50 - Robert C. Merton: from hot rods to MIT19:25 - Dynamic programming and Itô calculus24:35 - Merton's portfolio problem as stochastic optimal control31:10 - Options, dynamic hedging, and the Black–Scholes–Merton equation39:50 - LTCM: the dream team46:30 - August 1998: the crash49:00 - Fat tails and the ten-sigma defense51:40 - The ghosts of 2008 and echoes in the AI boom54:00 - Robustness embraced at last: Hansen and Sargent57:45 - OutroLinksBachelier's thesis, "Théorie de la Spéculation" (1900): https://www.numdam.org/item/10.24033/asens.476.pdfCourtault et al., "Louis Bachelier on the Centenary of Théorie de la Spéculation": https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9965.00098Merton's Nobel autobiography: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1997/merton/biographical/Merton's MIT "Infinite History" interview: https://infinite.mit.edu/video/robert-c-merton-phd-%E2%80%9970/Mandelbrot, "The Variation of Certain Speculative Prices": https://doi.org/10.1086/294632Merton, "Optimum Consumption and Portfolio Rules in a Continuous-Time Model": https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0531(71)90038-XMoehle & Boyd, "A Certainty Equivalent Merton Problem": https://doi.org/10.1109/LCSYS.2021.3111534Brigo & Mercurio, "Interest Rate Models: Theory and Practice": https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-34604-3Armstrong, Brigo & Hanzon, "Optimal Projection Filters with Information Geometry": https://doi.org/10.1007/s41884-023-00108-xHu & Zhou, "Constrained Stochastic LQ Control with Random Coefficients, and Application to Portfolio Selection": https://doi.org/10.1137/S0363012904441969Black & Scholes, "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities": https://doi.org/10.1086/260062Merton, "Theory of Rational Option Pricing": https://doi.org/10.2307/3003143Merton, "Option Pricing When Underlying Stock Returns Are Discontinuous": https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(76)90022-2Scholes' Nobel lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1997/scholes/lecture/Merton's Nobel lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1997/merton/lecture/Markowitz, "Portfolio Selection": https://doi.org/10.2307/2975974Michael Lewis, "Liar's Poker": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_PokerEdwards, "Hedge Funds and the Collapse of Long-Term Capital Management": https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.13.2.189Lowenstein, "When Genius Failed": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Genius_FailedTaleb, "Statistical Consequences of Fat Tails": https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.10488Taleb & West, "Working with Convex Responses: Antifragility from Finance to Oncology": https://doi.org/10.3390/e25020343Taleb, "The Black Swan": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Swan:_The_Impact_of_the_Highly_ImprobableTaleb, "Fooled by Randomness": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fooled_by_RandomnessMan Group, "The AI Bubble: Hidden Risks and Opportunities": https://www.man.com/insights/the-ai-bubbleSen. Warren's remarks at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator: https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/warren-remarks-at-vanderbilt-policy-accelerator-event-highlighting-economic-and-financial-risks-of-potential-ai-crashMeng & Chen, "Artificial Intelligence and Systemic Risk": https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.03272Doyle, "Guaranteed Margins for LQG Regulators": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1978.1101791Safonov & Athans, "Gain and Phase Margin for Multiloop LQG Regulators": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1977.1101470Hansen & Sargent, "Robust Control and Model Uncertainty": https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.91.2.60Hansen & Sargent, "Wanting Robustness in Macroeconomics": http://www.tomsargent.com/research/wanting.pdfSupport the showPodcast infoPodcast website: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n84j85jSpotify: https://tinyurl.com/4rwztj3cRSS: https://tinyurl.com/yc2fcv4yYoutube: https://tinyurl.com/bdbvhsj6Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/3z24yr43Twitter: https://twitter.com/IncontrolPInstagram: https://tinyurl.com/35cu4kr4Acknowledgments and sponsorsThis episode was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research on «Dependable, ubiquitous automation» and the IFAC Activity fund. The podcast benefits from the help of an incredibly talented and passionate team. Special thanks to L. Seward, E. Cahard, F. Banis, F. Dörfler, J. Lygeros, ETH studio and mirrorlake . Music was composed by A New Element.
Fr. Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, renowned spiritual writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist, and scholar of comparative religion. Fr. Larry Kaufmann, C.Ss.R., shares a glimpse of his life and work and leads us in a short prayer written by Fr. Merton. Catch this latest episode of Teach Us to Pray on @RMCBangalore.
Lux Radio Theatre - Merton of the MoviesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/harold-s-old-time-radio--4206392/support.
Writer David Scott has just released a new book looking at the career of Caroline Aherne so we got him into the virtual studio for a discussion. We go on at length about how much we love The Royle Family but also take on Mrs Merton, The Fast Show, The Fattest Man in Britain, and Dossa and Joe. Caroline Aherne: Rebel in Disguise is available in all good book shops, and some bad ones as well.
Filosofía de la ciencia en serio: las tres grietas del conocimiento, con dos filósofos de la ciencia. ¿Por qué funciona la ciencia si no es del todo segura?En 1610 Galileo apuntó su telescopio al cielo y no actualizó el mapa heredado: lo rompió. Mucha gente prefirió no mirar. Este episodio usa ese gesto como metáfora: las preguntas de la filosofía de la ciencia son las grietas de nuestro mapa del mundo.Recorremos tres grietas del método científico:La inducción no garantiza el futuro: David Hume y el pavo de Bertrand Russell.Los hechos no se ordenan solos: Henri Poincaré ("una pila de piedras no es una casa").El observador altera lo observado: Werner Heisenberg.Y la gran pregunta: si el mapa tiene grietas, ¿por qué funciona la ciencia?Para responder entrevisto a dos filósofos de la ciencia: Alfredo Marcos (catedrático en la Universidad de Valladolid) y María de Paz (Universidad de Sevilla). Les hago las mismas tres preguntas —qué estudia la filosofía de la ciencia, cuándo nace como disciplina y tres libros para empezar— y luego exploramos zonas poco tratadas: los sesgos de género y el eurocentrismo en la ciencia, los científicos que también filosofaron (Newton, Poincaré, Heisenberg) y el sociólogo Robert Merton con su "etos" de la ciencia (las normas CUDOS).Una introducción rigurosa y para todos los públicos a la metaciencia y la epistemología, con Kuhn, Popper, Feyerabend, Duhem y Hacking de fondo.Invitados:Alfredo Marcos — Catedrático de Filosofía de la Ciencia, Universidad de Valladolid. Contacto: amarcos@uva.esMaría de Paz — Filósofa de la ciencia, Universidad de Sevilla. Contacto: mdepaz3@us.esPara empezar a leer (recomendaciones de los invitados):Thomas Kuhn — La estructura de las revoluciones científicasKarl Popper — Conjeturas y refutacionesPaul Feyerabend — Contra el métodoPierre Duhem — La teoría físicaIan Hacking — Representar e intervenirHenri Poincaré — Ciencia e hipótesisAntonio Diéguez — La ciencia en cuestiónCapítulos:00:00 Avance (mejores momentos)01:11 Intro01:35 Hoy: filosofía de la ciencia02:09 Galileo y el telescopio: romper el mapa04:49 Grieta 1: la inducción (Hume y el pavo de Russell)07:20 Grieta 2: los hechos no se ordenan solos (Poincaré)08:07 Grieta 3: el observador altera lo observado (Heisenberg)09:04 Si el mapa tiene grietas, ¿por qué funciona?09:44 Entrevista: Alfredo Marcos y María de Paz10:06 ¿Qué estudia la filosofía de la ciencia?15:49 ¿Cuándo nace la disciplina?24:00 Tres libros para empezar31:54 Zonas por explorar: sesgos de género y eurocentrismo36:34 Científicos que filosofaron (Newton, Poincaré, Heisenberg)41:15 Merton y el "etos" de la ciencia (CUDOS)46:18 Cierre: seguir mirando por el telescopioComunidad de investigadores: https://horacio-ps.com/comunidadNewsletter: https://horacio-ps.com/newsletterSi el episodio te ha resultado útil, dale like, suscríbete o compártelo en Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iVoox o YouTube.
Join Robert Ellsberg, publisher of Orbis Books, in this One On One interview with James Finley as they discuss Thomas Merton (Turning to the Mystics)https://orbisbooks.com/products/thomas-merton-turning-to-the-mysticsThis new series, Turning to the Mystics, grows out of the much-loved podcast in which James Finley gently accompanies listeners into the wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition. Each volume offers a contemplative reading of one or two mystics, weaving their wisdom together with Finley's reflective commentary and simple practices for prayer. These mystics become living guides, offering room to notice how grace is already moving in the reality of our own lives and revealing the ever-present intimate nearness of God. In this volume, he delves into the mystical insights of Thomas Merton, the renowned Trappist monk, whom Finley first knew as his novice master at the Abbey of Gethsemani.James Finley, a psychotherapist and renowned retreat leader and spiritual director, is part of the Core Faculty of the Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico. A former novice at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, he is well known for his classic, Merton's Palace of Nowhere. His other books include his recent bestseller, The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation. He lives in California.Get your copy today: https://orbisbooks.com/products/thomas-merton-turning-to-the-mystics#OrbisBooks #JamesFinley #RobertEllsberg #Mystics #Catholic #Christian #Wisdom
Luke Grant speaks with Rachel Merton on the aerial culling of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park. The NSW Member of the Legislative Council shares her outrage over the upcoming slaughter, questioning the government's population data and calling for humane alternatives to protect these iconic animals. Find out why she crossed the floor to take a stand against the NSW Government's policy before the helicopters take flight.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this solo episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas delivers his definitive guide to Oxford — his favorite city in England outside of London and the subject of his guidebook 101 Oxford Travel Tips and Tricks. From the bleary-eyed chaos of his first visit in 2012 with an angry 16-month-old and the Mini Cooper factory ring road at midnight, to two stays as a student on the Oxford Experience program, Jonathan brings nearly 15 years of personal history with the city to bear on a comprehensive, enthusiastic, and practically useful travel guide. The episode covers how to get there, how long to stay, the Oxford Experience immersive student program, the colleges you must see, the Bodleian Library's remarkable layers, the essential museums, the unrivaled bookstore scene led by Blackwell's and its famous five-mile Norrington Room, Oxford's extraordinary literary connections from Lewis Carroll to Tolkien to Philip Pullman, the day trips that demand your time — including Blenheim Palace and the Cotswolds — and the practical tips that will make your visit infinitely more enjoyable. Links 101 Oxford Travel Tips and Tricks by Jonathan Thomas — [Anglotopia Store link] Oxford Experience at Christchurch English-Speaking Union Oxford Course Bodleian Library Tours — bodleian.ox.ac.uk Blackwell's Bookshop Oxford — blackwells.co.uk Oxford University Press Bookshop Scriptum, Turl Street Ashmolean Museum — ashmolean.org Pitt Rivers Museum — prm.ox.ac.uk Blenheim Palace — blenheimpalace.com Rousham House & Garden — rousham.org Didcot Railway Centre — didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk Oxford Walking Tours Morse Walking Tour Oxford The Randolph Hotel (now Graduate Oxford) Friends of Anglotopia ⠀ Takeaways Oxford is Jonathan's favourite city in England outside London — and most Americans either skip it or see it in a rushed half-day bus tour that barely scratches the surface. Two days minimum is the right call; three is better. Oxford is just 60 miles and 40-45 minutes by direct train from London Paddington, making it one of the easiest day trips or overnights in Britain — and you can also get there direct by bus from Heathrow without going into London at all. The Oxford Experience — a residential immersive programme at Christchurch offering one-week courses for adults in July and August — is Jonathan's single highest recommendation for anyone who wants to truly inhabit the city. Courses cost £1,500–£2,000 all-in and include room, board, lectures, and excursions; book in November when the schedule is released as popular courses fill within hours. The Bodleian Library is not one library but several — the Divinity School, Duke Humphrey's Library, the Radcliffe Camera, and the Weston Library — and the best way to see them properly is to book a guided tour well in advance, as they sell out. Blackwell's bookshop on Broad Street is arguably the greatest bookshop in the world — the underground Norrington Room alone has five miles of shelving beneath Trinity College — and Jonathan has never left without spending several hundred pounds. Staff will package books in brown paper and ship them back to the US at reasonable rates. Oxford's literary connections are extraordinary: Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland at Christchurch (Alice was the Dean's daughter); Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met with the Inklings at the Eagle and Child every Tuesday through the 1930s and 40s; Philip Pullman set His Dark Materials here; Oscar Wilde studied at Magdalen; and Inspector Morse has made every corner of the city feel like a crime scene. The Eagle and Child — the Inklings' famous pub on St. Giles' Street — has been closed since COVID and is currently being refurbished by new owners. It must reopen as a pub by heritage law, and is expected to reopen either in 2026 or 2027; keep an eye on the show notes link for updates. If you're in Oxford for even one day, you must go to Blenheim Palace — just eight miles away by bus, the only non-royal non-episcopal palace in England, birthplace of Winston Churchill, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and arguably the greatest country house in Britain. A bus from Oxford drops you at the gates. Jonathan's top Oxford hack: stay for at least one night. By 4-5pm the tour buses are gone, Oxford becomes a completely different city, and the cultural life — theatre, bookshop talks, music — begins. Arrive early to beat crowds at the sights, then save the evenings for culture and quieter exploration. Avoid mid-April to mid-June (exam season, colleges restrict access), avoid July if you run hot (medieval stone buildings have no air conditioning and bake in the heat), and buy a fan the moment you arrive if visiting in summer. September and October are ideal months to visit. ⠀ Soundbites "Most of my early memories of Oxford were driving the ring road at midnight with a toddler who would not go to sleep and who would only stop crying if he was in the car. We drove round and around, seeing nothing other than the Mini Cooper plant every time we went past." — Jonathan on his first trip to Oxford in 2012. "Oxford has this warmth to it — that yellow beige Cotswold stone, weathered and warm. And there's this scholarly, bookish vibe from the place that you don't really get anywhere else. It's not just a campus. Oxford University is the town of Oxford." — Jonathan on why Oxford grabs you. "I was immediately spellbound. I loved it immediately. And that's the thing about Oxford — it grabs you once you visit, and you're walking around this beautiful architecture surrounded by deep, deep history. They don't even know exactly how old the university is. It's over 800 years old. When Oxford was founded, the Aztec Empire hadn't even reached its peak." — Jonathan on falling in love with Oxford in 2016. "There were riots. There was full scale urban warfare in Oxford in 1355 — the St. Scholastica's Day riot. 63 scholars and 30 townspeople were killed. As a result, the town was forced to pay annual reparations to the university in a formal ceremony that continued into the Victorian era." — Jonathan on Oxford's violent town vs. gown history. "You basically get to live as an Oxford student for a week. Morning is lectures, afternoon is tours and excursions, evening is formal dinner in the Great Hall. And one night you're invited to high table — suit and tie, port, mingling with the professors. It's a very quintessentially British experience." — Jonathan on the Oxford Experience programme. "I've never gotten out of the Norrington Room without spending several hundred pounds. Let me just say that. Five miles of shelving underground beneath Trinity College. So many books." — Jonathan on Blackwell's legendary underground bookshop. "The Pitt Rivers Museum is like the Victorian cabinet of curiosities. Dimly lit, quiet — maybe people don't even know it's there. Polynesian canoes, samurai outfits, weapons, armour. A strange and wonderful melange of human culture from all over the world." — Jonathan on one of Oxford's most atmospheric museums. "If you're in Oxford and you don't go to Blenheim Palace, you've wasted a trip to Oxford. It's the only non-royal, non-episcopal palace in England. I would argue it's probably the greatest house in Britain. And a bus from Oxford drops you right at the gates." — Jonathan on Blenheim Palace. "By four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the tour buses are gone. And it's just you and the people who live and work and study in Oxford. Oxford becomes a completely different place. That's when the cultural life wakes up." — Jonathan's key Oxford overnight hack. "Scriptum on Turl Street — if you're a bookish type, you will love this place. Beautiful blank books, journals, diaries, fancy pens. I have a beautiful leather book from there with gorgeous cream pages that I cherish so much I haven't written anything in it. I'm afraid to ruin it." — Jonathan on his favourite hidden gem shop in Oxford. ⠀ Chapters 00:00 Introduction — Jonathan sets up the Oxford guide episode and plugs his Oxford guidebook 01:48 Jonathan's Relationship with Oxford — Brideshead Revisited, American universities, and the Oxford DNA in US campus culture 03:30 First Visit: Oxford 2012 — Diamond Jubilee trip, an angry toddler, and the ring road at midnight 06:20 Second Visit: Oxford 2016 — The train from Paddington, the proper day, and falling in love properly 08:42 A Brief History of Oxford — Ford of the Oxen, Alfred the Great, Henry II, 800 years, and the St. Scholastica's Day riot 13:30 The University Explained — 44 colleges, town vs. gown, the founding of Cambridge by Oxford exiles, and Oxford today 16:10 How to Get There — Train from Paddington, Oxford Tube bus, direct from Heathrow, and why not to drive 19:30 Getting Around Oxford — Walking, taxis, park-and-ride pitfalls, and Tolkien's grave 21:10 Day Trip vs. Overnight — Why staying beats leaving, and how Oxford transforms after 4pm 23:40 The Oxford Experience Programme — Christchurch, Worcester College, the Nelson course, high table, and the Enigma course Jonathan wants to do next 33:15 Accommodation Options — Hotels, staying in colleges out of term time, and the Randolph (Inspector Morse's pub) 35:20 The College System Explained — 44 semi-independent colleges, how to apply, porters, scouts, and visiting hours 38:00 Must-See Colleges — Christchurch, Magdalen, Worcester, Merton, Wadham (Brideshead), and the peculiar All Souls 43:00 The Bodleian Library — Five buildings, Duke Humphrey's Library, the Radcliffe Camera, the Divinity School, and why you must book a tour 47:00 Radcliffe Square & St. Mary's Church Tower — The most beautiful urban space in Britain and the best views in Oxford 48:40 The Ashmolean Museum — Britain's first public museum, the Alfred Jewel, Guy Fawkes's lantern, Turner paintings, and it's free 51:00 The Pitt Rivers Museum — Through the Natural History Museum, the shrunken heads, Polynesian canoes, and the Victorian cabinet of curiosities 53:00 Carfax Tower, Oxford Castle & Prison, and the Covered Market — Views, ruins, Brown's Café, and Ben's Cookies 55:30 The Botanic Garden & Broad Street — Riverside walks, the Martyrs' Cross, and the Reformation in Oxford 56:30 Shopping in Oxford — The High Street, Blackwell's, the Norrington Room, OUP Bookshop, Scriptum, The Last Bookshop, and why to skip the Harry Potter tat 01:03:00 Literary Oxford — Lewis Carroll, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Oscar Wilde, Philip Pullman, Inspector Morse, and the Eagle and Child update 01:09:00 Harry Potter Oxford — Divinity School, Duke Humphrey's Library, Bodleian courtyard, Christchurch Great Hall, and the new TV series 01:12:00 Day Trips from Oxford — Blenheim Palace, the Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon, Rousham House, Didcot Railway Centre, and Bicester Village 01:18:00 Practical Tips — Book ahead, avoid exam season, avoid July heat, arrive early, save museums for the afternoon, walk everywhere, punt the river, visit Scriptum 01:24:00 Wrap-Up — Oxford rewards time and attention; two days minimum, the Oxford Experience if you can, and a call for listeners to share what they love about Oxford Video Version
Thomas Merton said, "Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy." But who wants to face despair? Part of aging is moving away from roller coasters and bungee jumping to seek out serene vacations and the quiet confidence of financial independence. We mitigate against all such risks. But that is precisely Merton's point. The illusion of self-attained security deceives us on something profoundly human. We did not make ourselves. We are contingent. And losing sight of our ongoing neediness distorts how we understand all we have and do. In our passage this week, Amos is pressing that very point with God's people. They have lost sight of God, even as they 'worship' him. And nowhere is it clearer than in their apathy toward any who need mercy. What is so destructive about spiritual complacency? And how can we have a healthy despair that leads to real joy? Let's talk about "Woe to the Complacent!" (Amos 5:18-6:14).
In this episode, we discuss how AI-driven capex is widening the gap between opportunity in equities and risk in credit.The discussion and content provided within this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate for all investors. Reliance upon information provided in a podcast is at the sole responsibility of the listener. The information included herein is not based on any particularized financial situation, or need, and is not intended to be, and should not be construed as, a forecast, research, investment advice or a recommendation for any specific PIMCO or other security, strategy, product or service. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. All investments contain risk and may lose value. Investors should speak to their financial advisors regarding the investment mix that may be right for them based on their financial situation and investment objective. Podcasts may involve discussions with non-PIMCO personnel and such content contain the current opinions of the speaker but not necessarily those of PIMCO. Other podcasts may consist of audio recording of an existing PIMCO article and such material contains the current opinions of the manager. The opinions expressed in all podcasts are subject to change without notice. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but not guaranteed. PIMCO as a general matter provides services to qualified institutions, financial intermediaries and institutional investors. This is not an offer to any person in any jurisdiction where unlawful or unauthorized. For additional important information go to www.pimco.com/gbl/en/general/legal-pages/podcast-disclosures
Chris Wright is joined by:Communications Director for Progressive International, former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn, and author of ‘Our Bloc: How We Win' James SchneiderLabour Member of the London Assembly for Merton and Wandsworth since 2016, Leonie CooperHighly acclaimed writer, journalist, and broadcaster Christina Patterson Jean-Monnet Professor of European Integration at the National University of Ireland Maynooth, John O'Brennan Chris asks the panel whether the current political saga whereby Starmer's leadership is being challenged is a result of external conditions such as a right-wing media, or his own doing. In addition they discuss the lack of a program of wealth distribution, Starmer & Labour's political ‘own goals' since taking office, and the importance of communication. As the conversation develops focus turns to Andy Burnham and the significance of him going for the Labour leadership.Chapters00:00 The Political Landscape in the UK04:54 Challenges of Modern Governance09:27 Inequality and Economic Instability14:20 The Role of Communication in Politics19:07 Labour Party's Positioning and Strategy23:54 Global Issues and Domestic Politics28:16 Future Directions for the Labour Party34:29 Local Initiatives and Regional Politics37:49 The Brexit Dilemma39:59 Emotional Politics and Public Sentiment47:27 Inequality and Political Choices53:29 The Makerfield By-Election: A Crucial Battle01:04:21 Future of Labour Leadership'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. © Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.Rock around the clock productions AB.www.rockaroundtheclock.co This episode was produced by Sound SapienSoundsapien.com
A desperate young executive discovers that his office safe has become a doorway to the future, and every exchange leaves him richer than before. But when impossible money starts circulating through New York banks, Peter Merton realizes the people on the other side may not care what happens to him once their experiment is finished. Peter Merton's Private Mint by Harlan Ellison. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.You can never have enough Harlan Ellison. Unfortunately, very few of his stories have entered the public domain, and after today's episode there is only one more Ellison story left for us to feature. You'll hear that final story in the coming weeks.If you went searching for a Harlan Ellison story in the October 1956 issue of Fantastic, you wouldn't find one. Unless, of course, you knew that Ellison sometimes used the pen name Lee Archer. Open your copy of Fantastic to page 74, Peter Merton's Private Mint by Harlan Ellison…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A lonely wanderer escapes years of darkness and silence only to find that the world beyond his refuge recoils from him in terror. Every step toward warmth and companionship pulls him closer to a revelation that no living soul could endure unchanged. The Outsider by H. P. Lovecraft.
Vieni stebėtojai teigia, kad Vengrijos Bažnyčia „visiškai neturi viešosios kultūros“, todėl nėra galimybių diskutuoti apie konkuruojančias idėjas ir nesutarimus, kitų nuomone, skirtingai nei ankstesnių rinkimų metu, oficialus Bažnyčios tylėjimas per šią rinkimų kampaniją galėtų būti interpretuojamas kaip „kritika Orbáno politiniam stiliui“. Plačiau - vedamojo skiltyje.Velykiniame „Artumos“ numeryje – gyvybės temos ir pastangos išsaugoti krikščioniškus gimdymo namus. Dalyvauja vyriausiasis redaktorius Darius Chmieliauskas.Spaudos apžvalga: popiežiaus Leono XIV-ojo kritikos JAV administracijai analizė vokiečių katalikų žiniasklaidoje (parengė Giedrius Tamaševičius).„Krikščioniškos minties puslapis“: Tim Shriver „Thomas Mertonas ir religijos ateitis“.Kun. Mozės Mitkevičiaus pasakojimas apie tai, kokie prisikėlimo simboliai ir personažai iš Senojo Testamento buvo pasitelkiami ankstyvosios Bažnyčios, kol dar nebuvo žinoma nė viena Evangelija.Lauros Sintijos Černiauskaitės radijo apybraiža „Pinčiuko prisilietimas“.Redaktoriai Rūta Tumėnaitė ir Julius Sasnauskas.
Another very important guest on The Bull. In what he calls his few seconds of fame, after publishing an article that made his name known worldwide in the finance world, James Choi tells us about the differences between study and application in the academic universe versus personal finance. In this episode, we talk about the crucial role of stocks in a portfolio, Merton's formula, and some mental experiments we can adopt to better understand our goals and risk tolerance. Produced by Corax.
Un altro ospite importantissimo a The Bull. In quelli che definisce i suoi pochi secondi di gloria, dopo la pubblicazione di un articolo che ha fatto conoscere il suo nome in tutto il mondo della finanza James Choi ci racconta le differenze di studio e applicazione tra l'universo accademico e quello personale. In questo episodio parliamo dell'importantissimo ruolo delle azioni in portafoglio, della formula di Merton e di quelli che sono alcuni esperimenti mentali che possiamo adottare per capire meglio i nostri obiettivi e la nostra propensione al rischio. Una produzione Corax.
Confronta e Risparmia con Facile.it #adv Quanta parte del tuo portafoglio dovrebbe stare in azioni? È la decisione più importante di tutte nella finanza personale. Non i singoli titoli, non il timing di mercato: l'asset allocation. In questo episodio partiamo dalla teoria classica di Merton e arriviamo a una nuova formula sviluppata da James Choi (Yale) che prova a risolvere uno dei problemi più difficili per ogni investitore: quanto investire davvero in azioni durante la vita. Il punto chiave? Non devi guardare solo il tuo patrimonio finanziario. Devi considerare anche il capitale umano: il valore attuale dei redditi che guadagnerai in futuro. Ed è proprio questo che cambia completamente la risposta alla domanda: quanta quota azionaria dovresti avere davvero in portafoglio. Scarica il paper: https://spinup-000d1a-wp-offload-media.s3.amazonaws.com/faculty/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2025/08/practicalfinance.pdf Compila il Google Sheet di Choi: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hOGRYq3gGiJi3K2Nc3TaJy_iRf3Vj_7n/copy Leggi il Google Doc di Choi con tutte le istruzioni per compilare il file: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hykGDl6ZHJmDJmIJ706nErIKg5gWeoTxagnEvpWmuwA/edit?usp=sharing Una produzione Corax.
For Christian mystic Thomas Merton, the sacred and the profane were continuous: all was alive with divine presence. Stands of redwoods were his cathedral, the sky, birds, and wind were his prayers, and the silence of the forest his lover. This week, we return to an essay by Fred Bahnson, who follows Merton's 1968 pilgrimage to the American West as he travels to Redwoods Monastery and Christ in the Desert Monastery. Guided by Merton's contemplation and seeking the same solitude, Fred discovers anew the ways God runs through both land and heart.Read the essay.Watch the companion film by Jeremy Seifert.Photo by Thomas Merton.
In this episode, we welcome back James Choi, Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management, to unpack one of the most important—and misunderstood—questions in personal finance: How much of your portfolio should be in stocks? Drawing on his new paper, Practical Finance: An Approximate Solution to Lifecycle Portfolio Choice, James walks us through the classic portfolio choice problem first solved by Robert C. Merton, later extended by Francisco Gomes and co-authors, and now made dramatically more usable through a spreadsheet-based approximation. We explore how risk aversion, wealth, labor income risk, and expected returns shape optimal asset allocation, why simple rules like "100 minus your age" aren't terrible but still costly, and how James and his co-authors managed to approximate a complex dynamic optimization model with an error of less than 0.1% in lifetime welfare. Key Points From This Episode: (0:04) Introduction and why this episode delivers on "mathy roots." (1:10) James Choi's new paper: Making lifecycle portfolio choice solvable in a spreadsheet. (5:15) The portfolio choice problem: How much should you allocate to stocks versus risk-free assets? (6:09) The classic Merton (1969, 1971) solution and the "Merton share." (8:00) The equity premium formula: Expected excess return ÷ (risk aversion × variance). (11:20) Extending the model to risky labor income (Cocco, Gomes, and Maenhout). (14:27) Why labor income behaves bond-like—even when it's risky. (16:33) How wealth, risk aversion, and labor income characteristics affect optimal equity allocation. (20:52) Transitory vs. permanent labor income risk—and why permanent risk matters more. (23:04) Solving thousands of parameter sets to approximate optimal lifecycle allocations. (27:09) How close is the approximation? ~3–4 percentage points on average, with
In this two-part episode, we discuss incentives in science and academia. We discuss the various incentives in science, including recognition, citations, money, and the kick in the discovery. Shownotes Cole, S., & Cole, J. R. (1967). Scientific output and recognition: a study in the operation of the reward system in science. American Sociological Review, 377–390. Crane, D. (1965). Scientists at major and minor universities: A study of productivity and recognition. American Sociological Review, 699–714. Merton, R. K. (1963). Resistance to the systematic study of multiple discoveries in science. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 4(2), 237–282. Stephan, P. (2015). How economics shapes science. Harvard University Press. Tal Yarkoni - No, it's not The Incentives—it's you Tom Leher - Lobachevsky (1953)
With early exposure to Paul Tudor Jones and then stints on the sell-side in credit research, Michael Contopoulos is now Deputy CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors, a macro-oriented asset manager overseeing roughly $20 billion across long-only portfolios. Our discussion centers on portfolio construction in an era of extreme equity concentration and shifting global leadership.On the equity side, the firm is under-weight the most concentrated segments of U.S. equities and overweight international markets, citing valuation gaps, earnings acceleration abroad, and under-ownership by investors.Using his background in quantitative credit strategy and a Merton framework for modeling spread risk, Michael brings a structural lens to today's corporate debt markets. Our conversation focuses on the surge in long-dated issuance tied to AI infrastructure build-outs. He argues that history rarely rewards lenders who finance capital-intensive growth booms at their peak.Drawing parallels to late-1990s telecom boom, Michael questions whether investors are being adequately compensated for duration and technology risk embedded in 40- and 50-year debt issued by hyperscalers building data centers. The core concern is twofold: that AI-driven revenue gains may not justify the scale of investment, and that infrastructure built today may not remain technologically relevant decades from now.I hope you enjoy this episode of the Alpha Exchange, my conversation with Michael Contopoulos.Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)
Thomas Merton (1915–1968) was a Trappist monk, bestselling author, and mystic whose life bridged cloistered silence and global controversy. From a restless, scandal-marked youth to a dramatic conversion and controversial activism. Merton sought hiddenness yet became one of the most influential Christian voices of the twentieth century.If you would like to order a copy of Dr. Carlos Eire's latest book, "They Flew: A History of the Impossible," you can order a copy HERE (Yale University Press) or HERE (Amazon).If you have any questions, you can email us at christianmysticismpodcast@gmail.com. Your question and the answer may appear in a future episode of the podcast.You can visit our podcast website HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this two-part episode, we discuss incentives in science and academia. We discuss the various incentives in science, including recognition, citations, money, and the kick in the discovery. Shownotes Cole, S., & Cole, J. R. (1967). Scientific output and recognition: a study in the operation of the reward system in science. American Sociological Review, 377–390. Crane, D. (1965). Scientists at major and minor universities: A study of productivity and recognition. American Sociological Review, 699–714. Merton, R. K. (1963). Resistance to the systematic study of multiple discoveries in science. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 4(2), 237–282. Stephan, P. (2015). How economics shapes science. Harvard University Press.
In episode 3 - 1.What is the Functionalist view of crime and devIance2. How can crime be positive for society3. how can individuals use crime to benefit themselvesYou can also book private online tutoring at www.calendly.com/sociologyshowtutoring
As the new year gets rolling, I've been trying to make room for what I call “the soul.” To me, this means being more receptive to those mysterious synchronicities, insights, and feelings so easily missed when I keep myself busy and distracted. Sometimes this energy comes from within, and sometimes it's a “postcard from God,” as Walt Whitman would say.Bernie With His Plough & The Great Horned OwlIt could be a lyric that aligns with something on my mind. The other day, I heard Elton John sing the lyric about the howling old owl in the woods (from “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”). Though I've heard the line many times before, this time was different. Recently, each night when I take my dog out, I hear the haunting sound of a great horned owl in the woods behind my house.But what do I do with that synchronicity? Is it the owl itself - a symbol of wisdom, intuition, mystery, and the ability to see beyond illusion- that I should listen to? Maybe it's the lyric Bernie Taupin wrote for Elton about a desire to leave the superficial ego-driven world behind and return to a more grounded life - a more authentic self. Bernie was ready to leave the yellow brick road of striving for success. He wanted to go back to his plough and back to the howling old owl in the woods.Maybe it's both - the haunting sound of the owl and a longing to return “home.” Maybe the owl's saying, “Leave me alone already and just honor the mystery.” Maybe Bernie is telling me he'd love my simple, quiet life in rural Kentucky, a life that at times doesn't feel full enough.Contemplating Solitude With MertonA couple of days ago, while doing Qigong (meditative movements similar to Tai Chi), I wondered if there is a place nearby where people gather and move in these gentle ways. The first place that came to mind was the Abbey of Gethsemani, which is not far from here. Finding a group of monks, at least Trappist monks, doing Qigong, would be quite unlikely. Maybe if Merton were still around.Gethsemani was made famous by Thomas Merton, an influential spiritual writer and Trappist monk who lived at the monastery for 27 years. Four of those years, he spent mainly in his hermitage - a secluded cabin in the woods. “Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to enable the deeper voice of our own self to be heard at least occasionally.” - Thomas MertonBefore entering the Abbey at 26, Merton was worldly, raucous, and rebellious. Like Bernie and many of us, he struggled with the tension between a simple, humble life and a desire to engage with and influence the outside world.While at Gethsemani, Merton wrote over 70 books about contemplation, prayer, Eastern religions, interfaith dialogue and social justice, including his famous autobiography, “Seven Story Mountain.”What do I do with that? Merton did all of that while living a quiet life right here in my neck of the woods. Hmmmmmm….Reclaiming That Girl That Used to Be MineSometimes the soul provides a shift in how we think about ourselves and our lives. Sometimes, however, a postcard cuts right through all the analysis and goes straight to the heart.Yesterday, I saw a video reel of Sara Bareilles and Rufus Wainwright singing, “She Used to Be Mine.” Though I'd heard parts of this song before, I never stopped long enough to listen. Last night, with my reclaimed intention of receptivity, I did. Instead of landing on some great insight, I found myself in tears. Quickly, I pulled myself out, before sliding right back into those tears, tears that I realized I was grateful could still flow.When was the last time I cried? And why was I crying? And, why were so many of the people in the audience crying? The song is about losing one's self, and losing the connection to the child we once were - a universal loss that can make some of us ache, even at the age of 58, when we think we've done such a brilliant job of putting all of those parts of ourselves back together.Though no longer recognizing herself, she still remembers the girl she used to be. She sings with tenderness about that girl's imperfection, effort, goodness, and self-reliance. She questions what life would have been like if she could rewrite the ending for that girl.Sara Bareilles wrote this song for the 2016 Broadway musical, “Waitress.” The lead character sings it at the end of the second act when she has hit rock bottom. She is lost and struggling to remember who she is. Through the song, she mourns the loss of herself before starting to gain footing and for a moment taps into the strength and grit of that child she starts to reclaim.The story isn't over. We all have an opportunity to write the next act and to extend unconditional affection for the child that she describes as messy, but kind, lonely most of the time, but more, she is all of this “mixed up,” and “baked in a beautiful pie.”Why Here & Now?My long-held hope in sharing information online has been to balance the mind and spirit (the right and left brain). In recent times, I've leaned into the left-brain science. That's what people tend to read or listen to. That's what people need and can't easily find elsewhere. I'd forgotten, however, that expressing myself from my heart is something that I need. It is who I am. My own health and healing required much more than scientific information. It would be dishonest to only share part of that story.Even as a child, writing was my lifeline. It helped me find my place in the world. It gave me peace. That child wouldn't need to make sense of why the owl speaks to me at night. Or, why Bernie showed up with a plough in hand. Or, why Merton put down his pen and stepped out of his cabin to greet me in the woods. Or, even why Sarah, dressed as a waitress, crossed my path while singing a song I'd be sure was written just for me.But, I'm not only that child. I'm all grown up and can't help but wonder why these particular energies showed up now, beyond the fact that I created some space for them to do so? What would they have me know? I think, to embrace paradox and to remember that we are physical beings of this world, and also spiritual beings who transcend it. We need connection, and we need solitude. We are adults shaped by a lifetime of experience, and still vulnerable children filled with wonder and sometimes hurt. We are light, and we are shadow. And as Sara would say, we are all of this “mixed up and baked in a big beautiful pie.”Wishing you wholeness as you make your way through this year,CourtneyTo learn more about my discovery calls, non-patient consultations, or mentoring, please visit my website at:CourtneySnyderMD.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit courtneysnydermd.substack.com/subscribe
After many requests, Dr. Carlos Eire shares a reading list with our listeners.Great classic introductions:Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism: A foundational, comprehensive survey of the mystical path. The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism, edited by Amy Hollywood & Patricia Beckman): An excellent collection of essays Understanding Mysticism, ed. Richard Woods: Excellent essays of all the foundational scholarly interpreters of mysticism. Including the following: David Knowles, “What Is Mysticism?”Louis Bouyer, “Mysticism: An Essay on the History of the Word”Margaret Smith, “The Nature and Meaning of Mysticism"Evelyn Underhill, “The Essentials of Mysticism”Edward Howells: "Mysticism and the Mystical: The Current Debate" R. C. Zaehner, Mysticism Sacred and Profane: an Inquiry Into Some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience: A classicMore recent introductionsStephen Clarke, From Athens to Jerusalem: The Love of Wisdom and the Love of GodOlivier Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism John Macquarrie, Two Worlds Are Ours: An Introduction to Christian MysticismCarl McColman, The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: An Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality Great historical - analytical surveys:Louis Bouyer, et. al., A History of Christian Spirituality, 3 volumes: an older classic surveyVol. 1 The Spirituality of the New Testament and the FathersVol. 2 The Spirituality of the Middle AgesVol. 3 Orthodox Spirituality and Protestant and Anglican Spirituality Bernard McGinn, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism:A monumental multi-volume series that explores the development of mysticism across different historical periods and theological contexts. Vol. 1 The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth CenturyVol. 2 The Growth of Mysticism: Gregory the Great Through the 12 CenturyVol. 3 The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism: 1200-1350Vol. 4 The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany: 1300-1500Vol. 5 The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism: 1350–1550Vol. 6.1 Mysticism in the Reformation: 1500-1650Vol. 6.2 Mysticism in the Golden Age of Spain: 1500-1650Vol. 6.3 The Persistence of Mysticism in Catholic Europe 1500-1675Vol. 7 The Crisis of Mysticism: Quietism in Seventeenth-Century Spain, Italy, and France Bernard McGinn, Modern Mystics: An Introduction (not part of the Presence of God series, but a an essential complement to all of its volumes)Short surveys Harvey Egan, Introduction to Christian MysticismSteven Fanning, Mystics of the Christian TraditionWilliam Harmless, MysticsRichard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics SeeFocus on the corporeal dimension of mysticism:Montague Summers, The Physical Phenomena of MysticismHerbert Thurston, The Physical Phenomena of MysticismFocus on Practice:The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the ResurrectionThomas Keating, Open Mind, Open HeartMartin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Practice of Contemplation An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and ContemplationThomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation Contemplative Prayer Anthologies of Christian mystical texts:The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, edited by Bernard McGinnChristian Spirituality: The Classics, edited by Arthur HolderLight from Light: An Anthology of Christian Mysticism, edited by Louis DupréSuggestions for approaching the subject graduallyFirst step: Read a brief modern guide like that of Harmless or Fanning to get context before diving into the mystical texts. Second step: Dive into short excerpts from mystical texts in an anthology such as those listed above Third step: Pair theoretical texts (like Underhill) with devotional texts (like Brother Lawrence or Merton) and entire mystical texts (like the Cloud of Unknowing or The Interior Castle). Fourth step: Dive into the great surveys (like McGinn), and explore mystical texts from different eras and traditions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In 2019, I interviewed Hugh Turley about the book he wrote with his co-author, David Martin, "The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation." In 2023, Turkey and Martin published a follow-up: "Thomas Merton's Betrayers: The Case Against Abbot James Fox and author John Howard Griffin." Mr. Turley is back to tell us about the latest book and to give us some updates on the latest news about the investigation, new artistic ventures thalami to bring the story of Merton's death to light, and a possible cause for canonization. Find the first CAM interview with Hugh here: https://youtu.be/ImdRuSg3dJk?si=BAQJj6OwVSlljbhVFind Hugh here:http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.comFind "Thomas Merton's Betrayers" here:https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Mertons-Betrayers-against-Griffin/dp/0967352169Buy your CAM "Infallible Jesus" t-shirt here:https://catholics-against-militarism.checkoutstores.comFind CAM here: https://catholicsagainstmilitarism.comRSS feed: http://www.buzzsprout.com/296171Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/CAMpodcastFind CAM here: https://catholicsagainstmilitarism.comRSS feed: http://www.buzzsprout.com/296171Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/CAMpodcast
How do you take a natural product or CPG brand from startup to retail scale-up success? In this episode of the Unified Brand Podcast, we're joined by Jane Merton, MBA, founder of All Our Advisors, a seasoned strategist with decades of experience helping natural and organic brands scale into national food, drug, and mass market retailers across North America.Jane dives into essential brand alignment strategies, retail readiness, go-to-market planning, and how to avoid the biggest mistakes when growing a brand. From positioning and packaging to operations and in-store velocity, this episode covers:How to align your brand for retail successCommon mistakes founders make when scalingWhat buyers really want and how to say "no" strategicallyThe importance of brand consistency and core valuesTrends in TikTok live selling, retail media, and creator partnershipsPackaging that pops and converts on shelfHow to build a retail marketing launch calendarThis episode is packed with strategic insights for founders, marketers, and operators in the CPG and DTC spaces. Whether you're preparing for your first pitch or navigating scale, Jane's advice is pure gold.Jane Merton, MBALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janemerton/Website (All Our Advisors): https://www.allouradvisors.com-----------------
Akademik başarı yalnızca bireysel çabayla mı ilgilidir, yoksa sistemin görünmeyen adaletsizlikleriyle mi? Bu bölümde DEHB'li bireylerin eğitim yaşamındaki zorluklarını, Merton'ın […]
Danny Glaze IS BACK! The mighty Karl Collins (DC Danny Glaze) makes his debut on The Bill Podcast alongside his good friend and returning legend Chris Simmons (DC Mickey Webb) In Part 1 of a two-part special, Chris shares his thoughts on Sally Rogers' 2022 play "The Still Room", and discusses his work as a director on his movie "The Broken Arrow", in which Karl appears alongside other Sun Hill luminaries. Karl then discusses how his career began before both of these CID heroes begin to look back on their time at Merton. With Patrick Stratford at the helm, you know you are in for a cracker so sit back, relax and enjoy. The Bill Podcast is brought to you in proud association with georgefairbrother.com shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk vanguardcomics.co.uk gibconsultancy.co.uk mcr-seo.com and introducing donspillane.com Don Spillane was born, raised, and educated on the South Coast of England. In the 1960s and 1970s he served as a young detective with London's Scotland Yard working Jack the Ripper's old territory, Whitechapel and Bethnal Green. While assisting in the investigation of murders, armed robberies, and other criminal activity, he benefitted from the experience of senior colleagues who arrested culprits for such crimes as the Great Train and Bank of America robberies. His backup was the Yard's famed “Flying Squad” when he zeroed in for the final arrest of his career, a contract killer. Recently, he's found a new and rewarding life writing and creating thrilling novels based on his first-hand encounters with the sordid and unsavory denizens of the underworld. The opening of the podcast features a special promo, narrated by The Bill legend Natalie Roles, for Don's debut novel "Hustling The Mob" - What's the difference between robbing a bank and robbing a Mafia bank? Sarah and Joshua are about to find out. Joshua is a world class hacker and his partner, the alluring Sarah, is a master safe cracker who make their living pillaging other criminal's bank accounts. An attempted assassination puts them on the run. In return for help from a middle Eastern spy chief, they're tasked with disrupting an arms deal being negotiated by a crooked banker in the Cayman Islands. This same banker launders money for his main client, a New Jersey mafia boss. A huge pot of money proves too big a temptation and, in this international absorbing crime thriller, Sarah and Joshua must outsmart a growing list of bad guys. "Hustling the Mob" is available on Kindle and paperback from Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hustling-Mob-Mafia-Malware-Murder/dp/0990328376/
Join Dr. Mark C Meade for a discussion regarding the importance of The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. Mark C. Meade is the Assistant Director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. In over 20 years at the Center as an archivist, he has assisted scholars from around the world while himself presenting and publishing internationally on Merton's writings. Mark served as the sixteenth president of the International Thomas Merton Society. His scholarship has focused on Merton's autobiography and dialogue with the writings of Victoria Ocampo, Albert Camus, and Flannery O'Connor. About the podcast: We all know we need to read more and there are literally millions of books on shelves with new ones printed every day. How do we sort through all the possibilities to find the book that is just right for us now? Well, the McConnell Center is bringing authors and experts to inspire us to read impactful and entertaining books that might be on our shelves or in our e-readers, but which we haven't yet picked up. We hope you learn a lot in the following podcast and we hope you might be inspired to pick up one or more of the books we are highlighting this year at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center. Stay Connected Visit us at McConnellcenter.org Subscribe to our newsletter Facebook: @mcconnellcenter Instagram: @ulmcenter Twitter: @ULmCenter This podcast is a production of the McConnell Center
Elaine Heath is the abbess of Spring Forest, a new monastic community in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Spring Forest centers around communal prayer and meals, a vibrant farm, refugee support, and other ministries you can read about here. You can learn more about Elaine's work as an author and speaker on her website, or in articles like this one from the Center for Action and Contemplation.Many thanks to Elaine and her husband Randall for welcoming Ron and I and our audio producer, Colin, to the farm last June. Besides relishing the good company of our hosts, we enjoyed harvesting cabbage, feasting and praying with the Sunday evening group, walking through the woods, and petting some good-natured goats.Dr. Elaine HeathOn the farm.Someone had to help harvest the cabbage, so Ron and Colin and I pitched in.Elaine, husband Randall, and I in their lovely home.TRANSCRIPTElaine Heath If you are nurtured by traditional church—or let's say, conventional church—keep doing it, but also realize that for other people that's not nurturing. It feels dry and lifeless, and it's clear the Spirit is doing something new. So instead of insisting everybody stop doing the new thing, and everybody has to come and do the conventional thing, you can be conventional in your worship and bless and make space for others so that we have a plethora of experiments going on.Debra Rienstra Welcome to the Refugia Podcast. I'm your host, Professor Debra Rienstra. Refugia are habitats in nature where life endures in times of crisis. We're exploring the concept of refugia as a metaphor, discovering how people of faith can become people of refugia: nurturing life-giving spaces in the earth, in our human cultural systems, and in our spiritual communities, even in this time of severe disturbance. This season, we're paying special attention to churches and Christian communities who have figured out how to address the climate crisis together as an essential aspect of their discipleship.Today, I'm excited to introduce you to Dr. Elaine Heath. Elaine is founder and abbess of Spring Forest, a new monastic community centered on a 23-acre forest and farm property near Hillsboro, North Carolina. The farm supplies a CSA and supports food security for refugees and serves as the setting for outdoor programs for kids, cooking classes, potlucks, forest walks and more. But the Spring Forest community is a dispersed network of people who move in and out of the farm space in a variety of ways. They live on the farm for a time, they visit often to volunteer, or they simply join the community online for daily prayer. We got to visit the farm last spring, and I can tell you that Elaine's long experience with new monasticism, trauma-informed care, and contemplative practice make her an ideal curator of refugia space. The vibe on the farm is peaceful, orderly, and full of life. It's a place of holy experimentation in new ways to form Christian community and reconnect with the land. Let's get to it.Debra Rienstra Elaine, thank you for talking with me today. It's really great to be with you.Elaine Heath Yeah, I'm glad to be with you too.Debra Rienstra So you served in traditional parish ministry and in religious academia for many years, and then in 2018 you retired from that work to found Spring Forest. Why a farm and a new monastic community? What inspired and influenced this particular expression of faith?Elaine Heath I've always loved farms and forests. But actually, my dream to do this started about 25 years ago, and my husband and I bought a 23 acre property in North Central Ohio, right when I was right out of my PhD program and I got my first academic job at my alma mater, which is Ashland Theological Seminary. So I went there to direct the Doctor of Ministry program, and we bought this beautiful property. It had a little house that looked like the ranger station, and it had a stream and a big labyrinth cut in the field, and it had beautiful soil to grow, you know, for market gardening. And what we planned to do was gradually develop retreat ministries there. My husband was going to build some hermitages up in the woods, because I did a lot of spiritual direction with pastors who were burned out and traumatized, and we felt like that, you know, as I got older and phased out of academia, that would be something we could do together.So we were there for a couple years, and then I was recruited to go to Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. And we were very sad to leave our property behind, but we were clear that we were being called to Texas. So we bought a home in the city in a sort of mixed income, racially diverse neighborhood in Garland, and it was a big house with a nice yard, and soon after starting to teach evangelism—which, I kind of created my own path for how to teach evangelism, because I don't believe in selling Jesus or any of those kinds of colonizing things. So I was teaching about living a contemplative life and practicing social and environmental justice and being good news in the world, and being good neighbors to all our neighbors, and thinking of our neighbors as us and not them. And I had them reading Shane Claiborne and the people writing with the emerging church movement at the time, and pretty soon, I had students in my class coming to my office every week. It was a different student, but the same tears and the same kind of narrative: “Dr. Heath, I think I'm going to have to leave the church to answer my call. Tell me what I should do.” And it was because they were being called to do innovative, new monastic ministry, missional, new monastic kinds of things. But our denomination in particular didn't quite get it, even though early Methodism was very much like that.So I realized fairly quickly that this was God calling me through these students to focus my research and writing and my teaching in the area of emergence. Emergence theory, what's happening in the world. How do these currents of emergence intersect with what's happening politically and environmentally, and what's happening, you know, in the economy and with the church. So pretty soon, I don't know, it wasn't very long, I felt God was calling me to gather students and start some experiments outside, out in the city. And so I had a prayer partner, and we were praying for a house to come available, so that we could start a new monastic house. And she came to me one day and she said, “I saw the house coming. It'll be here soon.” And I said, “Okay.” I had no money for a house. You know, kind of a lowly professor, didn't make that much. And within two weeks, one of our neighbors came to me, who didn't really know me well at all, and said, “Hey, my mom has a rental property. It's been in our family for a long time, and we wondered if you might have some students that would like to live there. We won't even charge rent, just pay their utilities and not have drug parties or whatnot.” And I said, “No, that's unlikely,” you know. So I said, you know, I could throw the phone down and ran down to get in her car and go over to this house with her. And we were driving over, and she says, “You know, it's not the best neighborhood.” I said, “Perfect!” But we got there, and it was a really great little three bedroom house in a predominantly Latina neighborhood, and that was our first new monastic house. So I asked three of the students who'd been crying in my office, “Would you be willing to break your leases wherever you live and come and live here for a year?” And I can assign a spiritual director to work with you, and I can write a curriculum for an independent study on the theory and practice of new monasticism. And we can develop a Rule of Life based on our United Methodist membership vows. And they all immediately said yes, and so that's how we got started with our first house.Elaine Heath And then right around the same time, I started a missional house church that was quickly relocated into the neighborhood where most of the refugees are resettled in Dallas, because one of my students brought six Congolese men to our little house church worship, and that that was the beginning of realizing we were called to work with refugees.Debra Rienstra Oh, I see.Elaine Heath So that all got started around 2008. And by 2009, there was a student who came to Perkins who had been a commercial real estate banker on Wall Street. And he came to Perkins as a student. He was an older man. And we were going on my very first pilgrimage to Iona, Northumbria, and Lindisfarne, and Michael Hahn was with us too. He and I team-taught this class, so it was my first one. But it turned out that Larry Duggins, the student, had come to seminary because he really wanted to be equipped to help young adults who were feeling disillusioned with the church but wanted to be out in the world doing good work. And he started describing what he was called to, and I'm like, “Well, that's what I'm doing with these students.” So we joined forces and created a nonprofit called Missional Wisdom Foundation, and within three years, we had a network of eight new monastic communities across the metroplex. They were all anchored at local churches. Some of them were parsonages that weren't being used. And we wove into the expectations and sort of the lifestyle of those houses, urban agriculture.Debra Rienstra Oh, I was waiting for the farm to come back into it. Yeah, because I'm seeing these threads of experimentation and monasticism and place. We're sitting here today on your current farm land. So it's really interesting to hear all these threads being developed early on in an urban context.Elaine Heath Yes, it was quite something. These houses were all in different social contexts. There was one house, the Bonhoeffer house, that was in East Dallas, in a neighborhood that was not only mixed income and racially diverse, but also used to be where the mayor lived. And now there are people who are unhoused living there, and there are also people with nice houses living there. So it was a very interesting neighborhood. So that house, we learned quickly that you needed to take a year to get to know the neighborhood before you try to figure out how you're going to support whatever justice work needs to happen in the neighborhood. But that house got really close with the unhoused community and did a lot of good ministry with the guys and a few women. Then there was one for undocumented workers, the Romero House, and just different social contexts. But all of them had a backyard garden or, you know, some type of growing food kind of thing. And I used to take students to this farm that was an urban farm in DeSoto, which is just south of Dallas, where it was quite small, but these were former missionaries, the type that have crusades and show the Jesus film and everything in sort of poor countries. And then they had an awakening that happened, and they realized they were being called to help people in orphanages learn how to grow their own food in a sustainable way and raise the living standard for the whole village. So they had this little farm, and I would take students there every semester to experience the conversion of thought that this couple had over what mission is, and to experience the beauty and joy of tilapia that provide food for the lettuce, that provide for the bees, you know. So this closed system. So that also affected my imagination about what I really wanted to do in the future.And so gradually, the years—we were there for 11 years, and we lived in community the whole time that we were there. By the time we came here for me to work at Duke, we had a very clear picture of what we wanted to do here. And so we looked for the property back when we had to sell that first farm, when we were so sad about selling it, I had an experience in prayer where I sensed God was saying to me, “Don't give up on this dream. It's sacred, and it will happen in the future on a better piece of property, at a better time in your life for this.” And so when it was time to move here, I said to Randall, “This is the time. Let's look for that property.” So that's how we landed here.Friendly, very contented dairy goats, hanging out in the afternoon.Debra Rienstra Yeah. When talking about your students, you mentioned yesterday that you like to “ruin them for fake church.” So what do you mean by fake church, and how exactly do you ruin them for it?Elaine Heath Well, you know, church is really the people and not the building. You all know that. It's the people and we're called to be a very different kind of people who are a healing community, that neighbor well, that give ourselves away, that regard our neighbors—human and non human—as part of us, whether they think they're part of us or not. We have this sort of posture in life. And when I think of how Jesus formed the church, Jesus had this little ragtag group of friends, and they traveled around and did stuff and talked about it, and they got mad at each other and had power struggles and drama and, you know, and then Jesus would process the drama with them. And he would do these outrageous things, you know, breaking sort of cultural taboo to demonstrate: this is what love really looks like. And so we don't get to do much of any of that, sitting in a pew on Sunday morning, facing forward while the people up in the front do things. And so many churches—maybe you've never experienced this, but I certainly have. The pastor's sort of the proxy disciple while people kind of watch and make judgments and decide whether or not they want to keep listening to those sermons.Debra Rienstra Oh yes.Elaine Heath So when you experience Christian life in a community where it's both natural, it's just the way you live in the world, and it's also liturgically rich, and the life is a contemplative life, and it's also a life of deep missional engagement with the world— that other version of church, it's like oatmeal with no flavoring in it. It makes you, I mean, it's about the life together. It's how we live in this world. It's not about sitting somewhere for an hour once a week and staring forward.Debra Rienstra Right. Yeah, so I would, you know, of course, I would describe what you're describing as refugia, being the people of refugia. You know? Not that I'm—we'll come back to traditional worship and traditional forms of faith and religion. But it seems like what you're doing is living into something you say on your website that we are in the midst of a new reformation in the church, and I certainly sense that too. I think the evidence is all around us, and the research bears out that we've reached this inflection point, and it's a painful inflection point that a lot of people think of as decline, because living through it feels confusing and bewildering and dark and full of loss. So what is your sense of when we are, in this point in history, in particular, for those of us who've been part of church communities, where are we finding ourselves? Why is it so confusing?Elaine Heath I really believe we're in a dark night of the soul as the church in the West and perhaps places in the East too. I know we've exported a capitalist version of church all over the world, sadly. But I believe we're in a dark night of the soul, you know, classically understood, where it's spirit-breathed. It's not that the devil is doing something to us. It's spirit-breathed to detach us from our sort of corporate ego that thinks we get to show up and boss the world around and act like we own the joint.Debra Rienstra We call that church of empire.Elaine Heath Yeah. And so I think that's what's happening. And when, you know, if you study the literature, if you work in spiritual direction, and you're looking at what happens with the dark night of the soul. That's a real dark night, not a clinical depression or something like that, but an actual dark night. You have to go through it. You can't bypass it. You can't work your way out of it. You can't talk your way out of it. And what happens is you find yourself increasingly hungry for simplicity, for a simple but clear experience of God, because it's like God's disappeared. There's a deep loneliness, even a sort of cold hell, to being in a dark night of the soul. And so there's a restlessness, there's a longing for actual experience of God. There's a feeling of futility. Things that used to work don't work anymore. So you know the threefold path? The purgation, illumination and union is one way that we've learned to think about what happens. The purgation part is— we're there.Debra Rienstra We're being purgated.Elaine Heath We're being purgated, yeah. And at the same time that we're having these flashes of intuitive knowing, this sort of illumination is coming. “Oh, let's pay attention to the saints and mystics who lived through things like this. What gave them life? What helped them to keep showing up and being faithful?” And we're having moments of union too, when we feel like, “Oh, discipleship means I make sure that the trees are cared for and not just people. Oh, all living things are interconnected. Quantum physics is teaching us a spiritual truth we should have known already.” So the three parts of that contemplative path are happening simultaneously. But I think what feels most forward to a lot of people is the purgation piece where you're like, “Oh, things are just dropping away. Numbers are dropping. Things that used to work don't work. What's going to happen now?” Sort of a sense of chaos, confusion. Tohu va bohu, yeah.Debra Rienstra Yeah, do you want me to explain what that is?Elaine Heath Yeah, chaos and confusion. From the beginning of time.Debra Rienstra It's the realm out of which creation is formed. So the idea that the spirit is drawing us into this dark night is actually really reassuring. We are where we're supposed to be. And even though it feels confusing and painful, there are these moments of wisdom—that's so reassuring. In fact, one of the things you write: the new reformation is all about the emergence. So this emergence is happening of a generous, hospitable, equitable form of Christianity that heals the wounds of the world. What is your vision about what the church needs to release and hold and create right now?Elaine Heath We need to release everything that even slightly has a hint of empire, that we have thought of as what it means to be the church, because that completely reverts what church is supposed to be about. So giving up empire, we need to take up the great kenotic hymn of Philippians two and actually live it.Debra Rienstra The self emptying hymn.Elaine Heath The self emptying. And it's not—I know that that can be problematic when we're thinking of women or, you know, groups that have been forced to empty themselves in an exploited way. But that's not really what that's all about. It's about showing up to God, paying attention, seeing what God's invitation is, then cooperating with that and just releasing the outcome. That's what that's about, and really finding out, what am I in this world for? What are we in this world for? And being about that and not about something else.Debra Rienstra Yeah, it's hard to release the ways that we have done things. Well, you have a congregation, you have a pastor, you have a sanctuary, you have programs, you want the kids to come, you need tithes, all of those systems. And actually, what you're doing here at Spring Forest—let's talk about that. What you're doing here at Spring Forest doesn't have any of that. Sunday services. There's no church building. You have barn buildings, you have farm buildings. No Sunday school, no adult ed, no choirs, organs, praise bands, any of that stuff, right? Do you think of Spring Forest as a new model for church? Perhaps one among many?Elaine Heath It's one among many. We're definitely shaped by traditional monasticism. We're shaped by early Methodism. We're influenced by the Catholic Worker Movement, and definitely Bonhoeffer's work and a number of others: the Clarence Jordan and Koinonia farms. And so we're influenced by all of those. We do have music sometimes at Forest Feast, if we have someone that can lead it, and, you know, do a good job. But the backbone of our worship life is morning and evening prayer. And that is so wonderful. You were here last night for Forest Feast, and we use the same structure we use for morning and evening prayer, and we have a group of about six people who are writing the liturgies for us, who have been writing for a year and a half now.Debra Rienstra Who are those people?Elaine Heath Well, there's Steve Taylor is our lay leader, and his wife, Cheryl, and then there's Donna Patterson, who's—none of them were here last night. They all had to go somewhere. But some of them are lay people. Some of them are clergy.Debra Rienstra And they don't live here?Elaine Heath No, they live— well, some of the people that write live far away, and they're in our digital community. But, yeah, Steve and Cheryl live in Lumberton, which is, you know, almost two hours away. But they're beautiful. I mean, if you go online and look at some of the last month, look at the prayers and see the—they're just truly beautiful, and they reflect our spirituality of our community.Debra Rienstra Yeah. So the community, it seems to me, you have had people living on the farm itself, but your community, like the Iona community, is both located here on this land, but also dispersed. And so you have that interaction, that conversation between this residential life. So let's try to describe for listeners: there's the farm. You live here with your husband. You have interns from Duke. You have a farm. What do you call Larry?Elaine Heath He's our farm coach.Debra Rienstra Coach, yes, I love that. They have the farm coach who has the farming knowledge that you all sort of follow. You have chefs. They don't live here either, but they come in. So you have a lot of people coming in and out on this farm. And you do regenerative farming. You have programs for kids, you have refugee support, and you can talk about that, trauma informed rest for spiritual leaders. And then a number of other things. The farm produces vegetables and those go to a CSA, and also a lot of it is donated. Why this particular assembly of activities? How does it all fit together? And what are the theological principles beneath each of these endeavors?Elaine Heath The overarching principle is that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to every believer and to every person, let's just be honest. And the job of the pastor, the pastor teacher, is to fan those gifts into flame, to help them have the support they need to use their gifts and that the ministries should be shaped by the gifts of the people, which means you can't use a cookie cutter. And we have numerically a small community, but incredibly high capacity of people. So we have these gifts that they have, and then the ministries are emerging out of those gifts. And it might seem like, why do you have refugee support? And you know, just name anything else we're doing. How does this fit together? The organizing principle—okay, so you have the foundation. These are gifts given by the Spirit. Our ministries are emerging from our gifts. And the organizing sort of a cohesive piece is our rule of life that ties everything together. And so our rule of life is prayer, work, table, neighbor and rest. And that rule of life came about after we lived here for a year, when we first started Spring Forest with—there was another pastor that co-founded it with me, Francis Kinyua, who's from Kenya, and he was my student in Dallas, and did all those other things with me. So we invited him to come. We had to work with three different bishops to kind of make it work. But it worked, you know. Anyway, we just waited for a year to see. We had lots of work to do with getting the farm ready to go and Francis and I went to Church World Service right away to say, “Hey, we have a lot of experience supporting refugees, and we would like to do that here as well.” So we got started with that, but we waited a year and then just articulated, what are the practices that we do that are keeping us grounded here and keeping us right side up. And it was those things, so we named it.Debra Rienstra Okay, you were just doing it, and then you named those things.Elaine Heath Instead of creating sort of an aspirational rule and tried to live into it, we named what was actually working, what was actually grounding us and felt life giving.Debra Rienstra Hi, it's me, Debra. If you are enjoying this podcast episode, go ahead and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. If you have a minute, leave a review. Good reviews help more listeners discover this podcast. To keep up with all the Refugia news, I invite you to subscribe to the Refugia newsletter on Substack. This is my fortnightly newsletter for people of faith who care about the climate crisis and want to go deeper. Every two weeks, I feature climate news, deeper dives, refugia sightings and much more. Join our community at refugianewsletter.substack.com. For even more goodies, including transcripts and show notes for this podcast, check out my website at debrarienstra.com. D-E-B-R-A-R-I-E-N-S-T-R-A dot com. Thanks so much for listening. We're glad you're part of this community. And now back to the interview.Debra Rienstra You do partner a lot with, you know, “regular church folk.” It's that sort of in-and-out permeable membrane. How do you think about the relationship of what you're doing here, with Spring Forest, with the work of sort of standard congregations, is there like a mutuality? How do you think about that?Elaine Heath It's just like traditional monasticism. You've got a community that have this rule of life they follow. People who are not living in the community can become Oblates to the rule of life and have a special relationship. And usually those people go to church somewhere else. Part of our ethic here is we want to resist competition between churches, so we don't meet on Sundays to do things like programmatically. We usually just rest on Sundays and watch a movie and eat popcorn, you know.Debra Rienstra That's a spiritual practice.Elaine Heath But also, so there's that sort of historic piece, and people from churches come here for retreats. Lead teams come for retreats. People come—pastors, we have a lot of pastors who come here for a retreat. But also we are a mission community, so we're very active with supporting refugees. We're very active with the food programs that we have, and that gives people from a church—lots of churches don't have things like that going on. They don't have the resources for it, or they haven't figured it out. But that way, we can partner with churches and people can come here and they can actually get their hands in the soil, and they can teach somebody to read, and they can see little children learning where food comes from. They can help the chef with her kitchen things, you know. So it's a wonderful way to provide spiritual formation and missional formation to congregations that don't have those resources. And we can do these things together.Debra Rienstra Yeah. And that's that's premised on this being a place, an embodied place, a refugia space that people can come to. Yeah. I think that's a wonderful model. Do you yourself ever feel a sense of loss for “the old ways?” And I'm just thinking of this because at the beginning of your book, God Unbound, which is about Galatians, you write about how Paul challenges the Galatians to let go of their tight grip on the past, and you write about how you, reading that, felt yourself like a little bit of a traditionalist, you know, sort of defending, “But what about the past? What about the old ways?” Which you have loved too, right? So, how would you counsel people who have loved traditional church despite everything, and really do feel this sense of loss and wonder anxiously about what's next?Elaine Heath Yeah, I feel empathy. You know, something was going on in the Middle East at the time. I can't remember exactly the situation. There's always something going on, but it had to do with people's culture being wiped out and being told that what they believed didn't count and wasn't right and everything. And I was feeling such grief for them, and then all of a sudden, you know, I'm in Galatians, and think, “Well, that's how those people felt.” And even myself, there are things in my own daily practice that are—they're precious to me. My way of praying in the morning, the facing into the forest, you know, and things like that, that are rituals for me. And thinking, you know, if somebody told me “that doesn't matter,” how hard that would be. So I think in the spiritual journey, we come to the place, if we keep maturing, where we realize, in Merton's words, that so often we think it's the finger pointing to the moon, we think the finger is the moon. And it's that way about rituals and all sorts of things that we do, and we get to a place where we realize that intellectually and even spiritually, in an emotional way. But you can't force people to get to that point. This is something that happens as we grow and mature as life goes by. So what I have said to many people is, “If you are nurtured by traditional church, or, let's say, conventional church,”—because which traditional church are we talking about? One, right here, middle class, white, are we talking about Brazil? —”So if that nurtures you, keep doing it. But also realize that for other people, that's not nurturing. It feels dry and lifeless, and it's clear the Spirit is doing something new.” So instead of insisting everybody stop doing the new thing, and everybody has to come and do the conventional thing, you can be conventional in your worship and bless and make space for others so that we have a plethora of experiments going on. Because we're in a time of great emergence, as Phyllis Tickle wrote, and we need lots of experiments.Debra Rienstra Yeah. I appreciated what you wrote about trial and error. It's a time of trial and error, and it's okay to try things and have them not work. And that fits the refugia model too, really, really well. I mean, refugia don't always work. They just sometimes fail. Let's talk about a couple of key metaphors that I've noticed in your writings and in the website for Spring Forest too. One is that metaphor of the mycelial network, so the underground fungus that connects the creatures, the beings, the plants, the trees of the forest. I think is a wonderful metaphor too, for the way that faith and climate people, people who are worried about the climate crisis, and also people of faith—it's a great metaphor for how they're finding each other and connecting and building this sort of cultural and spiritual soil where the seeds of the future can grow. How is that metaphor meaningful for you here at Spring Forest?Elaine Heath Well, it means a lot in terms of the first of all, the diversity of expressions of ministry that are even here on the property, but also, especially in our dispersed community, through following the rule of life together, which—we are a practice-based community, rather than a dogma-based community. So as people are practicing those practices where they live and work and play, then they are forming community in a very specific, contextual way where they are. I think of Steve and Cheryl again, the friends I mentioned earlier. He's our lay leader. They live in a, I think a working class neighborhood in Lumberton, which is the land of the Lumbee here in North Carolina. And they have developed a wonderful, just neighborhood ministry there with—and they've been able, through potluck dinners and front yard barbecues and remembering people's birthdays and things like this, they've developed this friendship network in the neighborhood with people that are on complete opposite sides, politically, racially, and this is in the South, where you've got all sorts of issues. And they've taken the sort of ethic of Spring Forest here, but it's caused a mushroom to bloom there that looks really different from here. They don't have a farm, they don't have a forest, they've got this neighborhood. But the neighboring, the praying, the tabling, resting, all of those things are part of how they live there. And so it's fruiting there. And it's the same in other places in the world where we have people that live there.Debra Rienstra It's a good example, too, of how eating together is sacramental, both here and in these other networks that are connected to you. The Garden of Eden and the vision of the New Earth in Revelation are both important to you, that that whole long scriptural arc begin in a garden, end in a garden city, and then the Tree of Life is also your symbol, your logo. So how would you situate our work today as people of faith in that long arc of history, from the garden to the Garden City, and how does the Tree of Life fit into that for you?Elaine Heath There's a way in which the whole story is happening simultaneously. Does that make sense?Debra Rienstra Yeah.Elaine Heath It's all happening beyond time, sort of simultaneously. So sometimes we're living in the garden and we've been deceived, and now we have to figure out what to do, and sometimes we're rebuilding the wall, and sometimes we're on our way to Bethlehem, and sometimes we're in the garden of the new creation. And we can see it, and we're living that truth even while there's still the wall being built. There's a simultaneity to it all. But for me, I think especially of the theology of Julian of Norwich. That's why we have her icon here. There's this vision of love making all things new, that God, Christ, the risen Christ, says in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new.” All things, not just a handful of people who get the right doctrine, not just—no, all things: horses and amoeba and all things are being made new in mysterious ways that we can't completely know.Debra Rienstra And that's Colossians one and Romans eight as well.Elaine Heath It's this thread that comes through scripture, and we get to participate in that, even while we don't see all the things completely made new, we get to be part of that. And to me, that's what it means to follow Christ. That's what it means to be a disciple. And to be the love of God enfleshed in this world is to keep participating in the making of all things new. This is why healing has such a central role in my theological vision and my practice, is it's making all things new.Debra Rienstra Healing land, healing people, healing communities.Elaine Heath Yeah, yeah. Healing theology. Theology has been so damaged by patriarchy and philosophy and all sorts of things, you know, and racism.Debra Rienstra Colonization. Yeah, so that embodiment is important even theologically, because we're not aiming for some abstract doctrinal perfection. We're not aiming to become disembodied creatures. We're aiming for this embodied redemption. And so working on the farm, healing, you know, getting muddy, walking through forests, harvesting veg, and you're able to invite people into that embodiment. Little kids doing yoga, I think that's wonderful. You know, just finding this kind of rest in their own little bodies. Eating—one of the most embodied and kinship-with-creation things we do, right? Taking it inside ourselves. And that, I think, is condensed in ritual. So I know that you have been playfully experimenting with rituals. I was able to be a part of the Forest Feast last night with my husband Ron and our friend Colin. And it was this beautifully curated event where we shared table together and then went through this prayer sequence that you described, and it was beautifully participative. I noticed you do a blessing of the animals too on the farm. So good thing these are blessed chickens and blessed dairy goats, blessed dogs and cats. What other sort of liturgical shenanigans have you tried to help people live into this embodied faith practice?Elaine Heath We do so many things. It's so much fun. It's never boring. It's never boring. We have a ritual in the fall, in late November, where we tuck the farm in and put it to bed for the winter, and we have the children come, we get some compost. You know, we've cleared out the beds, and they're gonna rest now. And so the children put some compost in. And we have a liturgy that we use. We light candles, and we thank Mother Earth for the food, we thank God for the opportunities. And so this is one of the things that we do ritualistically. We also have a spring ritual. It's very Hebrew-Bible like, right? With these seasons and the crops and the things with the liturgical seasons, we also have done a bunch of things. My favorite one so far was for epiphany, and this was two years ago. And so I had the interns from Duke Divinity School do the bulk of the planning. I just gave them a little bit of guidance about the four-fold order of worship and just some things like that. So we had a journey through the forest. It started here. We went on the forest trail. Of course, it was dark outside, and they had gone ahead and set up fairy lights at certain places where we're going to stop. And one of the interns' fiance was a musician, so he had his guitar, and he had one of those things where you can play the harmonica and play the guitar at the same time, but he was our troubadour, and all of us were the Magi. So there's this troop of Magi, and we would stop at each station along the way, and there were prompt questions that we would take five minutes, and people could respond to these questions. There would be a scripture reading, and we respond to the question, we go to the next station. And it was so amazing. People shared from their lives in a very deep way. It surprised me how quickly they went deep. Well, it was dark, and there were these twinkle lights, and there was the troubadour. Then we finally got up to the Christ child, and we went into the goat barn. And honestly, I get chills every time I even remember this. But the students had set up in the goat barn—and the goats were in the barn. Okay, they were behind a little chain link thing so they didn't step on the icons and everything. But they had set up an altar at the base of the feeding trough with a big icon of Mary with the Christ Child, candles, and some other things there. There were different icons and some fairy lights. And we went in there, and we all crowded in and began to sing. We sang “This Little Light of Mine,” we sang some Christmas carols, and finished the story. And then we came back to the house and had some snacks and talked about what kind of wisdom was given to us since we were Magi. We were going to be people seeking wisdom and seeking—it was the most beautiful thing. And we've done lots of things like that. We see the land here is a primary text to learn from and to listen to and to observe, not as a metaphor, but as, it's actually a conversation partner. So we do things like that.Debra Rienstra That playfulness is so exciting to me, this sense of using our tradition, using our scriptures, using the skills that we've honed as people of faith over generations, singing together, praying together, but experimenting with those things in new contexts and new ways, in new forms of embodiment that are just faithful and yet playful. And so, as you say, people go deep because they're sort of jarred out of their habitual ways, and that can be such a great formational moment and bonding moment too, and it's very memorable. We remember that in ways—you know, you had such joy on your face as you're describing that. What would you say as you look back over the last, well, let's see, it's been almost eight years? Seven, eight years here at this location. What would you say has given you the most anguish and what has given you the most joy?Elaine Heath Oh, anguish. Which story should I tell?Debra Rienstra Yeah, I don't want to make it sound like it's all been beautiful and romantic and perfect.Elaine Heath Whenever you have community, you have drama. Well, you know, at your typical church, you're gonna have drama sometimes. But what we've found a few times, and it's pretty predictable. This happens in traditional monasteries too, which is why they have novitiate periods that are sometimes quite lengthy and sort of staggered, like you put your toe in the water. People of very high capacity who are deeply grounded spiritually and have a real vision for the gospel, are attracted to community life like this. People who are really hurt, who've had a lot of brokenness, especially from religious institutions or abusive situations, trauma that that is unresolved, that has a lot of unhealed wounds, are also attracted to places like this, often with a sort of utopian hope, because of, you know, life's deficits.Debra Rienstra And they feel that this is a place of healing, and they're right about that.Elaine Heath They're right about it. And so what actually happens is sometimes with the person, the second category of person, will come and join in and just be so full of gladness, because, “Oh, these, these are real people, like they're really doing things in the world. This is what I've longed for.” But then, as relationships form, and we're doing life together, and we all bump up against each other at times, the unhealed wounds fester. And the way I see it is, God's bringing them to a place where, if they'll just do their inner work now, now that it's clear what's the next step—if they'll take the next step, whether it's get some therapy, stay on your meds, get some support for your addiction recovery, whatever the things are—if you'll take the next step, then this is a very supportive community that can help you. It's a village that can be around you and you will heal here in the context of this village. But sometimes people are not willing or not able, or it's not time in their own sense of what they can do, and so then they'll leave. Sometimes when people leave, this happens in traditional churches, for whatever reason, this is a common sort of psychological reaction, they'll create some sort of chaotic drama to be the excuse for leaving, rather than have to face the fact that it was time for me to take the next step, and I was too scared. Because that takes a lot of self awareness, you know, to come to realizations about things like that. So I know from talking to people, from, you know, friends that are in traditional monasteries and convents that this is a common thing that happens there. So it happens here sometimes, and it's never easy. It's always painful and always challenging, you know, but with God's help, we get through it. And so that's the anguish, when those kinds of things happen. We've had a time or two where, over the last 20 years, really, where a person would come in, usually a young adult who's very idealistic, and they're like, “This isn't a new monastic community. You're not forcing people to pray three times a day!” You know, whatever the thing is that they have in their head that is supposed to be, because we're pretty gracious, you know.Debra Rienstra You don't get up at three in the morning.Elaine Heath Yeah, that's not us. We can't do that because, especially if you've got families with children and, you know, you've got to get up and go to work in the morning. So sometimes there will be somebody that figures they know more than everybody else in the room, and they want to take over and run the joint. You know, that's not going to happen. So then that sometimes creates some anguish. What about the joy? The joy is—and there's so much to give me joy. I really, really love seeing people come alive, like I really love seeing people who have, especially people who have been harmed by religion, because of their identity or because of anything, and they find deep spiritual friendship. They find how to connect, in Buechner's words, their deep passion with the world's great need, and start a new thing. And it gives them so much joy. And it's actually helping people. It's helping the world. And just sort of fanning that flame, that gives me a lot of joy. I have so much joy being in touch with the land and the animals. I just really experience them directly mediating God to me. I feel the divine life in them, and I feel, I guess I get a lot of dopamine hits when I'm out there harvesting and when I'm, you know, brushing the goats and talking to the chickens and whatnot.Debra Rienstra They are blessed chickens!Elaine Heath They are blessed chickens.Debra Rienstra What advice would you give to church people who, even though they love their church and their community, recognize that something needs to change, but they don't know where to start? What advice would you give?Elaine Heath To start in their own home, if at all possible, start in their own neighborhood. Start having neighbors over for dinner. Do not tell them we're going to have a Bible study now, because that's—it's not to have a Bible study. It's to form friendships with our neighbors. Start neighboring well. Figure out who lives on my street. Who lives across the street? Invite them for dinner. Have neighborhood potlucks. We did this in Texas, right after we moved there, I think they're still going. We'd have 50 people in our house sometimes. But just invite the neighbors for dinner. Have a potluck. Get to know them. Remember their birthdays, go to their kids' graduation. When you find out their mother died, go to the funeral. It's so simple. It's just such basic neighboring. That's where to start. It's not a church program. It's not making you stop going to church somewhere, to go to church over here. What you're actually doing is living church in your own neighborhood. Start doing that.Debra Rienstra Elaine, it's been such a pleasure to be here on the farm with you and to talk with you, get to know you a little bit. Thank you for what you do, and thank you for spending some time with me today.Elaine Heath It's been a joy. Thank you for the interview.Debra Rienstra Thanks for joining us for show notes and full transcripts, please visit debrarienstra.com and click on the Refugia Podcast tab. This season of the Refugia Podcast is produced with generous funding from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Colin Hoogerwerf is our awesome audio producer. Thanks to Ron Rienstra for content consultation as well as technical and travel support. Till next time, be well. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit refugianewsletter.substack.com
In this episode, I sit with the words of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk, writer, and mystic whose reflections on faith, identity, and community continue to resonate decades after his death. Merton warns against what he calls “the heresy of individualism,” the temptation to define ourselves only by what we're not, to build our lives on separation and judgment. His challenge struck me deeply, because I've lived that temptation: shrinking myself, building an island of “no,” and cutting myself off from connection. In this conversation, I explore what it means to move off the island, to see others as mirrors, and to rediscover the breath of the Spirit by starting with yes. If this episode meant something to you, I'd love it if you'd take a second to like, subscribe, and leave a review, it really helps more people find the show. If you would like to reach out to me you can drop me a line at clemenzwithaz@gmail.com or drop a DM at the clemenz with a "Z" instagram page. You can head over to https://gofund.me/7ebb0524 every bit helps. And if you're looking for more reflection, honesty, and spiritual wrestling, check out my Substack: Devotionals for the Deconstructing & Disillusioned, it's a space for people who still have soul, but no longer fit in the boxes they were handed. Thanks for being here.
Over the past half-century, evangelical Christians have rediscovered spiritual formation. Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, and more recently John Mark Comer have helped re-emphasize spiritual practices and the interior life. But why does so much popular writing and teaching on spiritual formation lean on Catholic sources – mystics and monks and Merton? Is there a distinctly Protestant stream of spiritual formation that we can rediscover? If so, what might it teach us? In this episode, we interact with a new book from Matthew Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God. Bingham asserts that there IS a deep Protestant tradition of spiritual formation, and one of its distinctives is the centrality of Scripture. In this episode, we discuss why we tend to minimize Scripture in spiritual formation, why the Puritans saw Scripture as central to spiritual formation, and how we can practically foreground the Scriptures in our spiritual practices.Chapters:(0:00) Introductions: Have We Lost the Thread on Spiritual Formation?(4:26) The Primacy of the Word of God(13:23) Some Critiques of a Word-Centric Spiritual Formation(20:43) What the Puritans Have to Say(26:22) Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You Richly
Chris's SummaryJim and I review a recent article featuring Robert Merton's views on retirement income versus savings, using it as a springboard to unpack income planning fundamentals and annuity projections. While we agree with many of Merton's framing points—especially the focus on secure income—we also note several key areas where academic theory diverges from real-world […] The post Retirement Income Versus Savings: EDU #2532 appeared first on The Retirement and IRA Show.
Lectio Divina (“divine reading” in Latin) is a centuries-old tradition of being inspired by reflecting on the text of a scripture. It may also be considered in terms of “reading” creation and what Thomas Merton called the “calligraphy of nature.” Merton (1915-1968) was a Catholic monastic and mystic whose writing impacted vast numbers of Christians by introducing them to a perspective on Eastern traditions they had never been exposed to before. He used his journaling as a portal into prayer, an entryway to clarity of thinking and love for God. He acknowledged times of doubt, fear, and anger and wrote with self-honesty and courage through it all. Merton walked a razor's edge in monastic life as his writings were subject to censorship in the Church. He met Tibetan Buddhist masters, considered Zen, Hindu, and Sufi teachings, and reported his own nondual experience. He wrote about the Vietnam war and had communications with Martin Luther King, Joan Baez, and many other public figures and writers. Merton stayed the course within the Catholic Church, sensing that God had placed him where he was. He was much loved by those resonant with the roots of mystical Christianity and maligned by those who were rigid and felt he had gone outside of the bounds of his faith. His overriding context was that all of life is a play of God. He felt that our desire to go where God wants us to go is praise of God and that “The gate of heaven is everywhere.” Journaling can be a way of communicating with the deep self, our highest self. Prompts were given to those who attended the talk, and some shared their journaling about “what I know and don't know about prayer.” Regina Sara Ryan was the editor of Hohm Press for 35 years. She is a workshop leader, retreat guide, and author of The Woman Awake, Igniting the Inner Life, Praying Dangerously, Only God, and other books.
What if uncertainty could still lead us to God? Merton's prayer is striking in its vulnerability ("I have no idea where I am going"), yet it also affirms that our desire to please God is enough, even in our ignorance.Questions for Reflection: 1. Did you know much about Thomas Merton before today's sermon? What surprised you about his life and witness?2. Can you think of a time when you were unsure if you were being faithful or obedient to God, but knew in your heart that you were trying to orient your life to God's will and God's ways? What was that like?3. How might God be inviting you to use this prayer (or another one from our series) in your daily faith walk?Find out more at HydeParkUMC.org/NextSteps
Is there collusion in our field? Do we have elites running wild, making sure that their work gets published whilst the rest of us struggles to find room to publish our own work? And are we handling conflicts of interest that may exist between authors and the editors who are charged with making decisions about their work? These are serious questions. They target the core of our field, they have the potential to undermine – or bolster – the legitimacy of all our scholarship, and they pose serious material consequences for all scholars, their careers and ultimately their lives. We came across a new paper that reports an analysis of the potential conflict of interest issues in academic publishing, and we use this paper to reflect on our experiences as both authors and editors. We try to draw a few conclusions and recommendations about how we can raise awareness and build institutional trust to minimize if not avoid any questionable or outright unethical practices in publishing. Episode reading list Association for Information Systems. AIS Podcast Library, . Mindel, V., & Ciriello, R. (2025). Safeguarding Academic Legitimacy: Editorial Conflicts of Interest as a Principal-Agent Problem in Elite Business Journals. SSRN, . Recker, J., Rosemann, M., Green, P., & Indulska, M. (2011). Do Ontological Deficiencies in Modeling Grammars Matter? MIS Quarterly, 35(1), 57-79. Lee, J., & Berente, N. (2012). Digital Innovation and the Division of Innovative Labor: Digital Controls in the Automotive Industry. Organization Science, 23(5), 1428-1447. Kane, G. C., Young, A., Majchrzak, A., & Ransbotham, S. (2021). Avoiding an Oppressive Future of Machine Learning: A Design Theory for Emancipatory Assistants. MIS Quarterly, 45(1), 371-396. Grisold, T., Berente, N., & Seidel, S. (2025). Guardrails for Human-AI Ecologies: A Design Theory for Managing Norm-Based Coordination. MIS Quarterly, . Boh, W., Melville, N. P., Baptista, J., Chasin, F., Horita, F., Ixmeier, A., Johnson, S. L., Ketter, W., Kranz, J., Miranda, S. M., Nan, N., Pentland, B. T., Recker, J., Sadeghi, S., Sarker, S., Sarker, S., Sutanto, J., Wang, P., & Wilopo, W. (2025). Digital Resilience for the Climate Crisis: Theoretical Perspectives and Ideas for Future Information Systems Research. MIS Quarterly, forthcoming. Merton, R. K. (1968). The Matthew Effect in Science. Science, 159(3810), 56-63. Tiwana, A., & Safadi, H. (2025). Silence Inside Systems: Roots and Generativity Consequences. Information Systems Research, . Li, J., Li, M., Wang, X., & Thatcher, J. B. (2021). Strategic Directions for AI: The Role of CIOs and Boards of Directors. MIS Quarterly, 45(3), 1603-1643. Pienta, D., Vishwamitra, N., Somanchi, S., Berente, N., & Thatcher, J. B. (2025). Do Crowds Validate False Data? Systematic Distortion and Affective Polarization. MIS Quarterly, 49(1), 347-366.
Today's guest is Victor Haghani, founder and CIO of Elm Wealth, which focuses on managing wealth with an emphasis on diversification, low fees, and tax efficiency. He's also the author of The Missing Billionaires: A Guide to Better Financial Decisions. In today's episode, Victor explores the Crystal Ball challenge, and how position sizing can be even more important than knowing tomorrow's news headlines. He also addresses the role of disciplined asset allocation in investment strategy, and how foreign stocks might stack up against US equities going forward. Finally, Victor touches on the relationship between expected return, fair value, and mean reversion, and whether or not the markets have a fair value at all. (0:00) Starts (1:45) Introduction of Victor Haghani (2:01) "Tomorrow's Newspaper Today" study (11:46) The Merton share (19:34) Elm Wealth's asset allocation strategy (24:02) Behavioral and tax implications in investing (39:19) Market timing models (56:01) Consumer behavior and Roth IRA conversions (1:02:05) Macro & mean reversion (1:06:08) Victor Haghani's most memorable investment ----- Follow Meb on X, LinkedIn and YouTube For detailed show notes, click here To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com ----- Sponsor: YCharts enables financial advisors to make smarter investment decisions and better communicate with clients. Get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription when you start your free trial. Follow The Idea Farm: X | LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTok ----- Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com ----- Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. ----- Meb's invested in some awesome startups that have passed along discounts to our listeners. Check them out here! ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode we get to see more of what MGM was (not) doing with our acteur's career. Underused in Song of the Thin Man (1947), in which she brings the only real noir energy to the final Thin Man film, she gets a similarly brief but memorable role in the Red Skelton vehicle Merton of the Movies (1947), playing the most innocent nymphomaniac in cinematic history. We uncover the legacy of Harry Leon Wilson's 1922 Merton of the Movies novel and surprise ourselves with our appreciation of Red Skelton's acting. Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: SONG OF THE THIN MAN (1947) [dir. Edward Buzzell] 0h 16m 33s: MERTON OF THE MOVIES (1947) [dir. Robert Alton] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave's Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!
Want to Start or Grow a Successful Business? Schedule a FREE 13-Point Assessment with Clay Clark Today At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com Join Clay Clark's Thrivetime Show Business Workshop!!! Learn Branding, Marketing, SEO, Sales, Workflow Design, Accounting & More. **Request Tickets & See Testimonials At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com **Request Tickets Via Text At (918) 851-0102 See the Thousands of Success Stories and Millionaires That Clay Clark Has Helped to Produce HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/ Download A Millionaire's Guide to Become Sustainably Rich: A Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Successful Money-Generating and Time-Freedom Creating Business HERE: www.ThrivetimeShow.com/Millionaire See Thousands of Case Studies Today HERE: www.thrivetimeshow.com/does-it-work/
Writer Nicholas Triolo walks the length of the Rio Côa in central Portugal with a book by Christian mystic Thomas Merton in his pack. For Merton, the living world shimmered with a divine feminine presence, meaning all within it was worthy of our love. Along the winding landscape of the Côa, damaged by agriculture and home to endangered animals, Nicholas witnesses the messy, subversive nature of “rewilding.” And with Merton as his companion on the journey, he begins to feel a wild, relational divinity in the land around him, and a devotion essential to rewilding place and self amid today's crises of despair and destruction. Read the essay. Photo by Ricardo Ferreira / Courtesy of Rewilding Portugal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In an age obsessed with "knowing oneself," how do we not get stuck in endless autobiography and self-absorption? At its best, a healthy spiritual and religious life helps free us from the cul-de-sac of narcissistic feedback. In the episode, we'll look at a story from Saint Antony, a paragraph from C.S. Lewis about hell, and I'll outline the four foundations of a spiritual life from the book Journey Into Emptiness by Robert Jingen Gunn (a book about Dogen, Merton and Jung). See below for the link I promised in the episode about the Cree mountains of human development. Enjoy! https://decolonialfutures.net/portfolio/fourmountains/#:~:text=Each%20mountain%20represents%20a%20stage,one%20mountain%20to%20the%20other. https://www.patreon.com/c/kentdobson
Brian Harnetty's recent record, Words and Silences, takes voice recordings made by the famed American Trappist monk Thomas Merton and sets them within Harnetty's musical compositions. The meditative and revealing result has been lauded by critics in The Wire, MOJO, and Aquarium Drunkard. In this episode, we share a Phantom Power exclusive: a brand new narrative piece that Brian created about the making of his record. “Words and Silences: The Thomas Merton Hermitage Tapes” is much more than a behind-the-scenes look at Brian's process. Harnetty's audio diary is its own moving meditation on Merton, solitude, sound, media, and the self. This is the second piece that Brian has shared with Phantom Power–you may remember his Forest Listening Rooms episode. Like that episode, this is something special. We highly recommend taking a walk in the woods or finding a quiet space to listen to this beautiful meditation. And after we listen, Mack talks to Brian about what we've heard. (And, of course, we'll have a longer version of the interview and our What's Good segment for our Patrons.) Who was Thomas Merton? Thomas Merton was an author, mystic, poet, and comparative religion scholar who lived from 1915 to 1968. It's hard to imagine a spiritual superstar quite like Merton appearing in America today. His first book, 1948's “The Seven Storey Mountain,” became a best-seller and led to a flood of young men applying to join Catholic monasteries. Merton had a major influence on spaces such as the progressive Catholic church Mack grew up going to. He was outward facing, committed to leftist causes, and fascinated by other religions, but at the same time, he retreated from his fame into his hermitage in KY. In The New Yorker, Alan Jacobs called him “perhaps the proper patron saint of our information-saturated age, of we who live and move and have our being in social media, and then, desperate for peace and rest, withdraw into privacy and silence, only to return.” Brian Harnetty Brian Harnetty is an interdisciplinary sound artist who uses listening to foster social change. He is known for his recording projects with archives, socially engaged sound works, sound and video installations, live performances, and writings. His interdisciplinary approach has been compared to “working like a novelist…breathing new life into old chunks of sound by radically recontextualizing them” (Clive Bell, The Wire). Brian is currently a Faculty Fellow at Ohio State University's Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme (2022-23), Harnetty is a two-time recipient of the MAP Fund Grant (2021, 2020), and received the A Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art in Contemplative Practices (2018) and the Creative Capital Performing Arts Award (2016). He has also twice received MOJO Magazine's “Underground Album of the Year” (2019, 2013). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
CraftLit - Serialized Classic Literature for Busy Book Lovers
Full Video Series at Mary Wollstonecraft goes off on Rousseau, hoisting him with his own Petard, as it were.* 00:00 Opening 00:57 I Have Notes 06:26 CHAPTER 3 06:44 Introduction to Bodily Strength and Gender 07:34 Misconceptions About Genius and Health 10:21 The Superiority Debate: Men vs. Women 11:43 ROUSSEAU Footnote: Why Women Can't ________ 17:38 Education and Female Virtue 19:01 EXTENSIVE FOOTNOTE from Mr. Day's "Sandford and Merton", Vol III 22:30 Critique of Rousseau's Views on Women 27:11 ROUSSEAU Quote re Girls & Dolls & Coquettes 30:39 ROUSSEAU Footnote on Girl Writing the Letter "O" 36:30 The Consequences of Female Subjugation 38:05 The Call for Rational Education 40:51 The Corruption of Power and Female Dignity 41:24 Revolutionizing Female Manners 44:55 The Nature of Worship and Rational Conduct 47:20 The Role of Women in Society 51:53 The Consequences of Dependence 54:36 ROUSSEAU Footnote: Men Have All The Good Qualities (sorry ladies!) 01:02:06 ROUSSEAU Footnote - "How Lovely is Her Ignorance" 01:07:13 Summing Up: The Call for Rational Virtues 01:10:53 Outro • Xiran Jay Zhao, Author of "Iron Widow" has an amazing Channel chock full of things you never knew you needed to learn—but you do. / • If you've never read Anne Brontë, please take a listen to CraftLit's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (starts with episode 516—). She's the most shocking, most modern, and arguably the best of the Brontë writers. You likely missed her b/c Charlotte didn't like this book's 'sensibilities' and did what she could to ghost it after Anne's death. Bad Charlotte! *The phrase's meaning is that a bomb-maker is blown ("hoist", the past tense of "hoise") off the ground by his own bomb ("petard"), and indicates an ironic reversal or poetic justice. []
Have you ever wondered how the world's top financial thinkers shaped the way we invest today? In this episode, Ben and Cameron sit down with Professor Stephen Foerster from the Ivey Business School to explore the evolution of modern investing. As a distinguished financial expert and co-author of In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio, Professor Foerster dives into the groundbreaking work of financial pioneers like Harry Markowitz, Bill Sharpe, Gene Fama, and others, unpacking their remarkable contributions to portfolio management, risk assessment, and market efficiency as we know it today. Tuning in, you'll gain a deeper understanding of Markowitz's revolutionary diversification theory, Sharpe's introduction of beta as a risk measure, and Fama's Efficient Market Hypothesis, as well as each of their perspectives on the “perfect portfolio,” tying together the history, theory, and practical application of modern investment strategies. Whether you're looking to sharpen your strategy or build your investment knowledge from the ground up, this conversation with Professor Foerster is packed with actionable takeaways and fascinating stories that could change the way you approach your financial future. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the thought leaders who shaped the market! Key Points From This Episode: (0:03:29) Contrasting the historical art of investing with the modern science of investing. (0:04:44) Markowitz's diversification theory and the importance of balancing risk and return. (0:09:39) Sharpe's capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and his contribution to measuring risk. (0:16:13) Insight into Fama's Efficient Markets Hypothesis and the joint hypothesis problem. (0:19:13) The rise of factor investing and the significance of Fama-French's three-factor model. (0:23:26) Unpacking Shiller and Fama's main point of disagreement on bubbles. (0:26:50) Bogle's perfect portfolio and persistence about the index fund, despite resistance. (0:29:37) How the Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) option pricing formula changed the world. (0:34:37) Ways that Merton contributed to portfolio theory and his take on TIPS. (0:36:20) Key takeaways from talks with Martin Leibowitz, Charlie Ellis, and Jeremy Siegel. (0:37:35) An interesting analogy for Professor Foerster's take on the “perfect portfolio.” (0:40:53) Correlation vs. causation in stock pricing and how it applies to factor investing. (0:46:38) Examples of masterly inactivity and investor lessons from Madoff's Ponzi scheme. (0:52:07) The dangers of FOMO, a SPACs cautionary tale, and lessons from value investors. (1:00:43) Winning at tennis vs. investing and risks of over-reliance on automated decisions. (1:06:02) Long-term lessons from pioneers in finance to improve investment strategies today. Links From Today's Episode: Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582. Rational Reminder Website — https://rationalreminder.ca/ Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/ Rational Reminder on X — https://x.com/RationalRemindRational Reminder on TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@rationalreminder Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Rational Reminder Email — info@rationalreminder.caBenjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/ Cameron Passmore — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Cameron on X — https://x.com/CameronPassmore Cameron on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpassmore/ Professor Stephen Foerster — https://stephenrfoerster.com/ Ivey Business School — https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/ Stephen Foerster on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-foerster-26b85319/ Stephen Foerster on X – https://x.com/profsfoerster Stephen Foerster Books — https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001KDO1L0 ‘Cristiano Ronaldo snubbed Coca-Cola. The company's market value fell $4 billion.' — https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/06/16/cristiano-ronaldo-coca-cola/ Books From Today's Episode: In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio: The Stories, Voices, and Key Insights of the Pioneers Who Shaped the Way We Invest — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691229880 Trailblazers, Heroes, and Crooks: Stories to Make You a Smarter Investor — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHLVYK1Q In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465085989 A History of Interest Rates — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471732834 Winning the Loser's Game: Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071813659 Stocks for the Long Run — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1264269803/ Extraordinary Tennis For The Ordinary Player — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0517511991 Papers From Today's Episode: ‘Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work' — https://doi.org/10.2307/2325486 ‘The Loser's Game' — https://doi.org/10.2469/faj.v31.n4.19 'The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities' — https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814759588_0001